Obama envoy says US not targeting Syrian army camp

An envoy to US President Barack Obama has dismissed reports that the American-led coalition in Syria has killed Syrian forces in a recent attack.

Brett McGurk, Obama's envoy to the US-led coalition that purportedly targets Daesh (ISIL) in Syria, said there had been no coalition airstrikes within 55 kilometers of a Syrian army camp in Deir al-Zour Province, where three army soldiers were killed and over a dozen others injured on Sunday evening.

"Reports of coalition involvement are false," McGurk said on Twitter.

This is while the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which is affiliated to the foreign-backed Syria opposition, had earlier said that four Syrian troops were killed after the air raids hit part of the Saeqa military camp near the town of Ayyash in the west of the province.

The UK-based group said the strikes hit the military camp located around two kilometers (1.2 miles) from an area controlled by the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group.

The observatory also said a woman and two children were killed in another air attack by the US-led coalition in the city of Deir al-Zour overnight.

Damascus slammed the coalition, with Syria’s Foreign Ministry saying in a letter to the UN Security Council and secretary general that "the Syrian Arab Republic strongly condemns this flagrant aggression by the US-led coalition forces, which blatantly violates the objectives of the UN charter."

The ministry said US-led jets fired nine missiles at the camp.

Three armored vehicles, four military cars, a weapons cache and ammunition were destroyed in the strikes, it said.

"The Syrian foreign ministry demands the UN Security Council act immediately in the face of this aggression and take appropriate measures to prevent its recurrence," the letter added.

Since late September 2014, the US, along with some of its allies, has been conducting airstrikes purportedly against Daesh extremists inside Syria without any authorization from Damascus or a UN mandate.

The air raids are an extension of the US-led aerial campaign against alleged Daesh positions in Iraq, which started in August last year. Many have criticized the ineffectiveness of the raids.

This is while the US and some of its regional allies, including Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have lent staunch support to the Takfiri groups there.

Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy for four and a half years. More than 250,000 have lost their lives and millions displaced as a result of the crisis in the war-torn Arab country.

The foreign-sponsored militancy has displaced 7.6 million Syrians.

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