March 1 (UPI) -- Backed by Russian air
cover, the Syrian Arab Army on Wednesday liberated the key Palmyra
Triangle, in the eastern desert of Syria, from
Islamic State rule, officials said.
The armed forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad
attacked Islamic State defenses
on the western perimeter of the triangle, authorities said, which is
located in Homs Governorate in the expansive Syrian desert.
After a
two-hour fight, the army said it liberated the triangle zone and advanced to within two miles of the Palmyra city limits.
Military forces are also targeting Islamic State positions and supply lines in nearby Deir Ezzor.
Islamic State militants have been fighting in the Palmyra region for
years, where ancient and historical landmarks have been destroyed
outright by the terror group.
A number of militants were killed and wounded in Wednesday's battle,
the army said, and Syrian forces continued to chase down fleeing
insurgent fighters.
Moscow has been aiding Syria's army in the fight with coordinated airstrikes for many months.
The U.S. Department of Defense said Wednesday that a Russian fighter
jet accidentally bombed a coalition position near Aleppo on Tuesday,
causing an undetermined number of U.S. allied casualties. Russia's
foreign ministry denied the claim. File Photo by Sergei
Chirikov/European Pressphoto Agency
Also Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Defense said a Russian
airstrike bombed a location about 130 miles to the northwest, near
Aleppo -- causing an undetermined number of casualties of U.S.-led
coalition troops.
"We had some Russian aircraft and regime aircraft bomb some villages
that I believe they thought were held by ISIS," Lt. Gen. Stephen
Townsend, commander of the U.S.-led task force in Iraq and Syria, told
reporters in a video call from Baghdad. "Actually on the ground were
some of our Syrian Arab coalition forces."
Townsend said American military advisers were positioned about three miles away when the strike occurred on Tuesday.
The Russian government, though, has
denied the claim.
"To avoid any incidents, the U.S. representative has provided exact
coordinates of the U.S.-backed opposition forces in the region to a
Russian officer," Moscow's defense ministry said in a statement
Wednesday. "Not a single airstrike on the regions specified by the U.S.
side was conducted by Russian or Syrian air forces."
If true, the errant Russian strike is the second by Moscow in recent
weeks in the fight against the militant group, also known by the
acronyms ISIS and ISIL. Last month, Russian jets mistakenly bombed
Turkish forces near Al-Bab.
"The coalition is encouraged by the progress against ISIS in Al Bab
by the Turkish military and their opposition forces," Townsend said. "We
encourage all forces to remain focused on the counter-ISIS fight and
concentrate their efforts on defeating ISIS, and not toward other
objectives that may cause the coalition to divert energy and resources."
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