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Putin signs deal allowing air forces to stay in Syria for 49 years

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Russia’s president signs a law enabling the country’s air forces to remain in Syria for 49 years as part of a protocol to a 2015 agreement with the Damascus government.

The protocol was signed by Moscow and Damascus in January 2017, regulating issues related to the Air Forces’ deployment to the Syrian territory.

It was adopted by the Russian State Duma, the Lower House of the Russian Parliament, on July 14, and approved by the Senate five days later.

Vladimir Putin signed it on Thursday, RT cited a Kremlin statement as saying.

Enshrined in the protocol is an option enabling automatic extension of the arrangement for another 25 years.

The protocol also features Damascus’ agreement to provide the Russian air force with free land in its northwestern Latakia Province.

Russia has been using the Khmeimim Air Base there to carry out anti-terror operations since September 2015.

The Russian military has also been offering advisory support to Syria, helping the Arab nation make numerous gains in its battles on terrorists.

In March 2016, Moscow withdrew many of its forces from Syria, with Putin saying the goals of the anti-terrorist mission there had been “generally accomplished.”

Russia, however, said it would keep a military presence at the port of Tartus and at the Khmeimim airbase to monitor the situation and the implementation of truce deals.

Donald Trump scraps covert CIA program to arm Syrian rebels

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US President Donald Trump has decided to end a secret CIA operation to support Syrian rebels fighting the regime of Bashar al-Assad, US media reported. The decision is an acknowledgement of the situation on the ground.

US President Donald Trump has decided to end a CIA program to arm and train so-called moderate Syrian rebels, in a seeming acknowledgement that a years-long covert program would fail to dislodge Syrian President Bashar al-Assad or bring the regime to the negotiating table.

The Washington Post and the New York Times reported on the decision, citing US officials.

Trump reportedly made the decision to shut down the training program a month ago after consulting National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and CIA Director Mike Pompeo. Trump had foreshadowed the decision, repeatedly criticizing US backing of rebels during the 2016 presidential campaign for fueling Islamic extremism.

Read more: Opinion: ‘Islamic State’ jihadism could live on

Obama policy

Former US President Barack Obama started the covert CIA program in 2013, backing so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA) factions in southern and northern-western Syria that the administration deemed to be moderate.

Run in coordination with Jordan, Gulf Arab states and Turkey, the CIA program gave the United States influence on the ground and, importantly, some sway over its regional allies’ policies in Syria.

But the goal of toppling Assad with no apparent successor in place to ensure stability afterwards was always questionable. Backing dozens of fractious rebel factions brought with it the risk that weapons and money would end up in the hands of extremists.

Key rebel backers, Turkey and Gulf Arab states, also poured in money and weapons to their own preferred groups.

A separate $500-million Pentagon train-and-equip program in 2015 to create a 5,000 strong rebel force highlighted the challenges and dangers of assembling fighters to take on the “Islamic State” (IS).

That program ended up with defections and attacks by al Qaeda jihadists on the US-backed force, which lost its weapons before disbanding with less than a dozen fighters in the same year.

US focused on IS

The Syrian conflict, now in its sixth year, has morphed into complex civil war with a dizzying array of armed actors and fronts-within-fronts that has drawn in more than a dozen international and regional powers.

The United States has increasingly focused its attention more on defeating IS in Iraq and Syria than toppling Assad. Ending the CIA program will not impact the US-led fight against IS.

Over the past two years, the US military has found common cause with the Syrian Kurds as its preferred partner on the ground to fight IS in northeastern Syria.

The US Is Furious Turkey Published Location Of US Troops In Syria

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A senior State Department official tells BuzzFeed News that the US has raised “strong concerns” to senior Turkish officials after a report details the location and numbers of US troops in Syria.

John Hudson, BuzzFeed News Reporter

US officials accused Turkey Wednesday of putting US troops at risk after Turkey’s state-owned news agency published the locations of 10 previously secret US military outposts in Syria.

US military officials called the publication a security breach that could endanger US troops, and State Department officials said they’d expressed those concerns to Turkish officials.

“We’ve raised our strong concerns with publication of this information with senior Turkish government officials, as we do any time we have concerns about risks to US military or civilian personnel,” one official told BuzzFeed News.

The list, published Tuesday by the Anadolu news agency, detailed not just the location of US bases in Syria, but also provided the approximate number of US troops at each location – information the US has to date refused to divulge. It also provided information about French troops posted alongside them. Turkish officials verified the accuracy of the Anadolu list to The Daily Beast.

The report said Andalou reporters spotted the bases during reporting trips to Syria. The US military said it has not yet determined the source of the information.

US officials privately interpreted the publication as an expression of Turkey’s anger over the US conduct of its war against ISIS, in particular, the US alliance with Kurdish forces that Turkey says are aligned with separatists who’ve been waging a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state.

The US denies working with the separatists, saying it’s providing support only to the Syrian Democratic Forces, a US-created force that consists of both Kurdish and Arab fighters but that is widely acknowledged to be led by the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, a Syrian Kurdish militia the Turks say is an affiliate of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or the PKK, the Turkish separatist movement. The PKK has been designated a terrorist organization by the US, the European Union, and Turkey.

The Andalou report gave little credence to US assertions about the SDF’s independence. “Despite the fact that the militants were given SDF uniforms, some of them wear uniforms with banners of Abdullah Ocalan, jailed head of PKK terrorist organization in Turkey,” the report said.

The US has deployed more than 1,000 US troops across Syria to advise, train and provide artillery and aerial support to the SDF push to capture Raqqa, ISIS’s Syrian capital. US officials stressed that they already have robust security measures in place, but the US military has cited security precautions previously in declining to release details of the US deployment.

US Central Command, which is responsible for the US operations in the Middle East, made no effort to disguise its dismay that a supposed ally would release those details.

“We are deeply concerned with any information that exposes coalition forces to unnecessary risk being in the public domain,” Centcom spokesman Army Maj. Josh Jacques told BuzzFeed News. “We generally do not disclose the locations of coalition forces operating in Syria to defeat ISIS due to operational security. We remain focused on maintaining the momentum in the continued annihilation of ISIS.”

The publication marks the latest dip in US-Turkey relations that have been troubled for years over US strategy in Syria. Tens of thousands of ISIS fighters used Turkey as a way station in their journey to Syria, amid allegations that the Turkish government was not doing all it could to stanch the flow.

Additionally, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused the US government of protecting a Pennsylvania-based Turkish cleric, Fethullah Gulen, whom Erdogan blames for last year’s failed coup attempt. Last week, Turkey’s ambassador in Washington told reporters that his government is increasingly frustrated by the slow pace of the US proceedings against Gulen.

“It’s not moving as fast as the Turkish public opinion would like it to move,” Serdar Kılıç said. Meanwhile, the Justice Department has given no indication that it intends to press for Gulen’s extradition to Turkey.

In mid-May, the nations exchanged angry statements over Erdogan’s bodyguards’ beating of demonstrators outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence in Washington. Local prosecutors in Washington eventually charged 12 members of Erdogan’s entourage with crimes in connection with the beatings, which were captured on widely viewed video. Nine people were injured in the melee.

Erdogan was in Washington for meetings with President Donald Trump.

Clashes with Turkey likely in days: Syrian Kurdish militants

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Kurdish fighters from the People’s Protection Units (YPG)

Kurdish fighters from the People’s Protection Units (YPG) run across a street in Raqqah, Syria, July 3, 2017. (Photo by Reuters)

The head of a US-backed Kurdish militant group fighting in Syria says a confrontation is likely “within days” between his fighters and the Turkish forces recently deployed to Syria’s Aleppo Province.

“These [Turkish military] preparations have reached level of a declaration of war and could lead to the outbreak of actual clashes in the coming days. We will not stand idly by against this potential aggression,” said Sipan Hemo, the commander of Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), told Reuters on Wednesday.

Turkey and Kurds harbor historical hostilities toward one another. Ankara considers Kurdish populations, whether in Syria, Iraq, or Turkey itself, as “terrorist” groups bent on taking away territory from Turkish soil.

The YPG fighters have been involved in a major attack against Takfiri Daesh terrorists in Syria’s northern city of Raqqah since June. And Turkey has deployed forces to Syria without obtaining a permission from the Syrian government.

The YPG is part of a larger coalition of fighters — the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) — which has been engaged in operations aimed at liberating Raqqah. The US considers the SDF, which also includes Arab fighters, as its main proxy force fighting on the ground in Syria.

Ankara has already expressed its deep concern about the advancement of YPG forces in northern Syria.

Hemo indicated that the YPG would continue to fight Daesh terrorists even after their defeat in Raqqah, saying it was committed with “the international coalition to cleansing Syria of terrorism,” referring to a US-led coalition carrying out aerial bombardment against purported Daesh positions in Syria.

The US’s provision of weapons to the YPG has further incensed Turkey, a NATO member, prompting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to warn the White House about the purported consequences of arming the “terrorist” YPG.

In an attempt to address Turkish concerns, the US said last month that it would have the Kurdish fighters in Syria disarmed once Daesh has been flushed out of Raqqah. Turkey wasn’t impressed. Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said on Wednesday that no group armed in the Middle East had ever returned the weapons it had received.

Washington has “formed more than a terrorist organization there, they formed a small-scale army,” he said.

Kurtulmus also retorted that Hemo’s claims about a declaration of war by Ankara was not true, saying that his country would however respond to any hostile move by the YPG.

“This is not a declaration of war. We are making preparations against potential threats. Their (YPG) primary goal is a threat to Turkey, and if Turkey sees a YPG movement in northern Syria that is a threat to it, it will retaliate in kind,” Kurtulmus said.

Ankara fears that the YPG will permanently hold parts of land in northern Syria after Daesh is routed.

Referring to that possibility, President Erdogan said recently, “I want the entire world to know that in northern Syria, on our border, we are never going to allow a terrorist state to be established.”

In a bid to keep the Kurds far from Turkey’s southern border, the Turkish government has also been training armed men affiliated with the so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA) to fight Kurdish forces for some time.

“If there is a threat against us, our troops will conduct any operations with the Free Syrian Army (FSA) on the ground,” Erdogan announced in an interview with France 24 television aired on Wednesday.

Last week, however, Hemo said that the YPG had never “threatened Turkey or its security,” while slamming the Turkish intervention in Syria as “occupation” of Syrian territory. He also said that the Kurdish fighters under his command planned to capture an area between the northwestern border towns of A’zaz and Jarablus, both of which are currently under the control of Turkey-backed FSA militiamen.

In separate comments made in an interview with the Saudi-owned Asharq al-Awsat daily published on Wednesday, Hemo also said that Washington has already set up seven military bases in Syria’s northern areas, which are controlled by the YPG or SDF, including a major airbase in the vicinity of Kobani, a town at the border with Turkey.

The city of Raqqah, which lies on the northern bank of the Euphrates River, was overrun by Daesh terrorists in March 2013.

Rex Tillerson floats no-fly zones for Syria, if Russia agrees

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Syria, G20, Tillerson,no-fly-zonesA joint US-Russia stabilization effort in Syria, including no-fly zones, has been floated by the US secretary of state. Rex Tillerson’s call precedes talks expected at the G20 in Hamburg between US and Russian leaders.

Tillerson said in a statement released in Washington late Wednesday that the United States was “prepared to explore” the establishment with Russia of “joint mechanisms” for Syria, now into its sixth year of warfare.

This could include “no-fly zones, on-the-ground ceasefire observers, and coordinated delivery of humanitarian assistance,” Tillerson said.

At the G20 in Hamburg this Friday, face-to-face talks are expected between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

A “special responsibility” to help stabilize Syria fell on Russia, said Tillerson, referring to Moscow’s military backing for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

“If our two countries work together to establish stability on the ground, it will lay a foundation for progress on the settlement of Syria’s political future,” said Tillerson.

“Russia also has an obligation to prevent any further use of chemical weapons of any kind” by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, he added.

Assault on Raqqa

His statement came as US-backed forces pressed their assault on the “Islamic State” group’s hub, the city of Raqqa, where up to 100,000 people are trapped in desperate conditions, according to the United Nations.

Tillerson said Islamic State had been “badly wounded” and might be on the “brink of complete defeat.”

“In order to complete the mission, the international community, and especially Russia, must remove obstacles to the defeat of ISIS [Islamic State],” he said.

Ipj/bw (AP, Reuters, AFP)

Turkey continues to muddy the Middle East, Does the US have answer for Turkish threats against Syrian Kurds?

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Source:

A Turkish army tank drives toward Karkamis on the Turkish-Syrian border in southeastern Gaziantep province, Turkey, Aug. 25, 2016. (photo by REUTERS/Umit Bektas) Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/07/us-answer-turkey-threats-syria-kurds-hamas-iran-hezbollah.html#ixzz4lm8RIukX

A Turkish army tank drives toward Karkamis on the Turkish-Syrian border in southeastern Gaziantep province, Turkey, Aug. 25, 2016. (photo by REUTERS/Umit Bektas)
Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/07/us-answer-turkey-threats-syria-kurds-hamas-iran-hezbollah.html#ixzz4lm8RIukX

“Though pointing to Idlib as the next destination,” Fehim Tastekin reports, “Turkey’s field operations signal double objectives. First, Turkey wants its own troops in the de-conflicting, or ‘safe,’ zones determined during peace talks in Astana, Kazakhstan. Second and more important to Turkey is to take advantage of the competition between rival coalitions west of the Euphrates. With the United States and Kurds on one side and Russia, Iran and the Syrian army on the other, Turkey hopes to break up the corridor carved out by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG). Ankara considers this stretch of land a threat to Turkey’s national security.”

“According to information leaked to the news media by official Ankara sources,” Tastekin continues, “TSK [Turkish military] forces will cross into Syria from three locations and establish control over an area 35 by 85 kilometers (21 by 52 miles). This corridor would start at Daret Izza and extend to Obin and Khirbet al-Joz. Another area of land, starting from Turkey’s Hatay border and extending 35 kilometers to Sahl al-Ghab, would also be controlled by the TSK. In this security configuration around Idlib, Turkey’s Free Syrian Army (FSA) allies would also have a role. So far, as many as 2,000 FSA soldiers have been put on alert.”

Tastekin reports, “Kurds insist that the Syrian army is cooperating with Turkey in this operation, at Russia’s behest. But there are no real indications of Russians and the Syrian army wanting to suppress the Kurds. To the contrary, the feeling in Damascus is that Russia and Syria would prefer to keep the Kurds as their ally.”

The US State Department, at least publicly, does not have an answer as to whether Turkey’s moves might complicate its overall Syria strategy. Asked by a reporter June 29 whether the United States was concerned about Turkish threats and attacks on the Syrian Democratic Forces (or SDF, which is made up primarily of YPG fighters), State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert replied, “The reason that the United States is involved in Syria is to take out [IS]. That’s why we care and that’s why we are there. Our focus is on liberating Raqqa right now. Our forces aren’t operating in the area that you’re talking about. I don’t want to get into [Department of Defense] territory. That is theirs. But our focus is on another part of Syria right now.”

That same day, pressed by a reporter as to whether the United States would defend the SDF against Turkey, Col. Ryan Dillon, a spokesman for the Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve, said, “We’re not going to get there. I don’t want to speculate on that. We will continue to support our SDF partners in the fight against [IS] in Raqqa and perhaps elsewhere after that.”

And this brings us to Idlib. Tastekin writes: “According to official comments from Ankara, an operation is in progress to add Idlib to the area Turkey controls. Currently, Idlib is divided between Ahrar al-Sham and Hayyat Tahrir al-Sham. Though both Salafi militant groups seek the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, they are rivals. Turkey’s presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin talked of a plan calling for Russian and Turkish deployment at Idlib, Russian and Iranian troops around Damascus, and American and Jordanians at Daraa in the south.”

Idlib is, simply put, a time bomb for those who may hope that defeating IS in Raqqa might be the beginning of the end of the counterterrorism campaign in Syria. This column said in March: “While the United States is consumed with planning for unseating IS in Raqqa, Idlib may prove a comparable or perhaps even more explosive fault line because of the blurred lines among anti-Western Salafi groups such as Ahrar al-Sham, which is backed by Turkey, and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.” The latter group is comprised of current and former al-Qaeda and affiliated forces. Ahrar al-Sham’s on-again, off-again ties with al-Qaeda make it, in our view, a fellow traveler, not an alternative, even if the two groups are presently at odds.

Do Turkey’s plans for Idlib include cleaning house on these groups? If not, we can expect Idlib to remain a safe haven for Salafi and terrorist forces seeking to keep up the fight against the Syrian government, while the citizens of Idlib continue to suffer under the brutal and arbitrary rule of these armed gangs.

In a related story, Metin Gurcan reports that Turkey is looking to crack down on “foreign fighters,” including Americans, who have taken up arms with the YPG. Gurcan writes: “There are plenty of allegations, but as of today the media has no evidence that foreign fighters in the YPG are fighting against Turkish security forces in Turkey or Syria. However, the capture of just one YPG foreign fighter in Turkey or one fighting Turkish forces in Syria could rapidly worsen legal and diplomatic relations between Turkey and the Western allies to dangerous levels — especially if that foreign fighter turns out to be a citizen of a NATO country.”

Hamas moves closer to Iran

Adnan Abu Amer writes that the blockade of Qatar led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates continues to push Hamas toward Iran, as Al-Monitor has reported.

On June 14, Mousa Abu Marzouk, deputy head of Hamas’ political bureau, met with Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah. “It is no secret that Hamas, despite having different positions regarding the Syrian crisis, needs Hezbollah when it comes to funding, training, securing supply lines for weapons and providing residence for Hamas cadres in Lebanon,” Abu Amer writes. “For its part, Hezbollah needs a Palestinian movement, such as Hamas, to restore its popularity among Arab public opinion, which it lost after being involved in the wars in Syria, Iraq and Yemen against Sunni Muslims. Hamas, as a Sunni Islamic movement getting closer to the Shiite Hezbollah, may help dispel Hezbollah’s sectarian image. The new rapprochement between Hamas and Hezbollah may contribute to the return of armament and training cooperation programs, with the support of Iran.”

Abu Amer concludes: “Hamas realizes that the margin of political maneuvering has been narrowed by the polarization of the two rival axes: Qatar and its allies against Saudi Arabia and its partners. However, in the absence of other options, the movement seems compelled to resort to Iran and its allies in the region, namely Hezbollah, to survive. Even if it is faced with a new wave of criticism, Hamas would still be turning toward Hezbollah.”

Source: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/07/us-answer-turkey-threats-syria-kurds-hamas-iran-hezbollah.html?utm_source=Boomtrain&utm_medium=manual&utm_campaign=20170702&bt_ee=W1bAOXpkqqi56LAUy/ZcTt51CYXKyNoQEOQm8oTF2CIMmWLIRJvQ9Tle5DQMC2Zk&bt_ts=1499070744397

ISIS withdraws from Syria’s Aleppo

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ISIS withdraws from Syria's Aleppo The Islamic State group no longer has a presence in Syria’s Aleppo province after withdrawing from a series of villages where regime forces were advancing, a monitor said on Friday, Al-monitor.com reports.

“IS withdrew from 17 towns and villages and is now effectively outside of Aleppo province after having a presence there for four years,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Regime forces had been advancing on a sliver of southeastern Aleppo province around a key highway linking Hama province to the southwest and Raqa province further east. Abdel Rahman said regime forces seized control of the road late Thursday night, prompting the remaining IS fighters to flee. A Syrian military source in rural Aleppo confirmed the withdrawal.

“The military operation is ongoing and Daesh withdrew from the Aleppan countryside towards rural territory in Hama and Raqa,” the source told AFP, using the Arabic acronym for IS. “The Syrian army is clearing out the last few metres,” the source added.

Since early 2015, multi-front offensives against IS have eaten away at territory the group held in Aleppo province.

US-backed Kurdish and allied Arab fighters ousted the jihadists from Kobane on the Turkish border in 2015 and from the key city of Manbij last year. Rebels backed by Turkey seized the town of Al-Bab in February, and Syrian government troops have steadily chipped aw ay at IS towns in the south of the province. In neighbouring Raqa province, a US-backed offensive is bearing down on the provincial capital of the same name, which has served as the jihadists’ de facto Syrian capita

Cross reinstalled on Armenian church in Latakia, Syria

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syria Armenian cross restoredA cross has been reinstalled on the dome of the Armenian St. Gevorg Church in Al-Ghanimeh village in Syria’s Latakia province, Rusarminfo.ru told Panorama.am.

The cross installation ceremony was performed by Primate of the Armenian Diocese in Berio Shahan Archbishop Sargsyan. The villagers, as well as a many Armenians from various districts of Latakia province attended the church ceremony.

Armenian St. Gevorg Church was built in 1875. During the first years of the Syrian crisis, the Armenian populated Al-Ghanimeh village was occupied by terrorist groups and its population was evacuated, with the church subjected to desecration.

The settlement was liberated by the Syrian Army in June 2016.

Pentagon Syria Chemical “Deja Vu” all over again

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Syrian Chemical attackThe Pentagon says the United States has seen evidence of what appeared to be active preparations by Syrian government forces for a possible chemical-weapons attack.

Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said on June 27 that activity was detected at Syria’s Shayrat airfield — the same Syrian airfield that was struck by a U.S. missile attack in April.

Davis said U.S. intelligence detected preparations involving “specific aircraft in a specific hangar, both of which we know to be associated with chemical-weapons use.”

The White House said late on June 26 that preparations by Syria were similar to those undertaken before a suspected chemical attack on April 4 that prompted President Donald Trump to order a cruise-missile strike on the Syrian airfield.

“As we have previously stated, the United States is in Syria to eliminate the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria,” spokesman Sean Spicer said.

“If, however, [Syrian President Bashar al-Assad] conducts another mass-murder attack using chemical weapons, he and his military will pay a heavy price.”

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said that Russia and Iran, Assad’s key allies in Syria’s civil war, would also be responsible if such an attack took place.

Haley told a U.S. House of Representatives hearing on June 27 that the “goal is at this point not just to send Assad a message but to send Russia and Iran a message that if this happens again we are putting you on notice.”

Russia denounced the White House warning, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying, “We consider such threats against the Syrian leadership to be unacceptable.”

“I am not aware of any information about a threat that chemical weapons can be used,” Peskov added.

Trump ordered the strike on Syria’s Shayrat airfield in April after what he said was a poison gas attack by Assad’s government that killed at least 70 people — a charge Damascus denied.

The strike put Washington in confrontation with Russia, which has backed Assad with air strikes in his 6-year-old civil war with rebels.

U.S. officials called the April intervention a “one-off” move intended to deter future chemical attacks and not an expansion of the U.S. role in Syria.

US airstrike on Syrian ‘IS’ prison kills dozens of civilians, claim activist groups

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Two Syrian activist groups have claimed coalition aircraft have bombed a prison run by the so-called “Islamic State” in Syria, killing 42 civilians. The US-led coalition has said it is looking into the matter.

The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights claimed on Tuesday that a US coalition airstrike hit a prison run by the so-called “Islamic State,” killing at least 57 people.

“The strikes hit an IS jail in Mayadeen at dawn on Monday, killing 44 prisoners and 15 jihadists,” chief of the Britain-based Observatory Rami Abdel Rahman told news agency AFP.

A spokesman for the US-led coalition told Reuters that it would quickly look into the matter.

Read: White House claims Bashar al-Assad planning Syrian chemical weapons attack

Read: Almost 500 dead in month of US-led Syria strikes: monitor

The jail reportedly contained civilian prisoners as well as jailed members of the terrorist group.

The activist-run Deir Ezzor 24 media outlet said at least 60 civilians were killed in the attack. It said the building belonged to a commander with links to al Qaeda before it was seized by IS in 2014.

Both groups blamed aircraft from the US-led coalition but it was not clear how they identified the aircraft responsible.

Syrian state-run TV station al-Ikhbariya cited its correspondent in the area as saying coalition warplanes had destroyed a building in al-Mayadeen used as a prison by IS.

In a news bulletin flashed on screen, it said the building had been used as a prison for a “large number of civilians”.

US to investigate

Colonel Ryan Dillon, spokesman for the US-led coalition told Reuters: “With every single allegation we will take it and look into it.

“If we are responsible for any civilian casualties we come forth and admit it,” he said. He said Observatory reporting had previously been exaggerated.

Mayadeen is in the Euphrates Valley about 45 kilometers (28 miles) southeast of Deir Ezzor, the capital of a province bearing the same name.

US intelligence officers had previously told Reuters, on condition of anonymity, that IS had moved most of its leaders to al-Mayadeen as Raqqa came under increasing attack.

Among the operations believed to have moved to al-Mayadeen were its online propaganda operation and its limited command and control of attacks in Europe and elsewhere, they said.

Last week the coalition said that it had killed IS’s top cleric Turki Binali in a May 31 strike in Mayadeen and earlier this month Russia said it had killed about 180 IS jihadists, including two field commanders, in June 6 and 8 air strikes on Deir Ezzor.

aw/msh (AFP, AP, dpa)