Syrian TV: Deadly air strike hits Deir al-Zor

Erdogan says Turkish operation in Idlib area largely completed

BEIRUT/ISTANBUL (Reuters) – An air raid in the government-held Qusur district of Deir al-Zor city in eastern Syria killed more than a dozen people, state television and a war monitor say.

Jets from the US-led international coalition battling Islamic State carried out the air strike, killing 14 civilians and wounding 32 others, state television said on Monday.

A spokesman for the coalition said on Tuesday it had not carried out such a raid, and that its only strike in the vicinity in recent weeks took place in September across the Euphrates from the city.

The war monitor, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, did not know which aircraft carried out the strike, but said at least 22 people had been killed.

The Syrian Army, backed by Russia, Iran and Shi’ite militias, is fighting ISIS in the city of Deir al-Zor, as well as in parts of the surrounding countryside. Syrian and Russian jets have been hitting ISIS in that area.

The US-backed coalition has been conducting air strikes against Islamic State in support of the Syrian Democratic Forces alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias to the east of Deir al-Zor, across the Euphrates.

The rival US-backed and Syrian Army offensives against Islamic State have clashed several times over recent months as they have pushed the jihadists from territory in eastern Syria.

The US and Russia have said they communicate with each other to prevent points of conflict of violence between the two offensives.

Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday the country’s military operation in northwest Syria’s Idlib province was largely completed but that the neighboring region of Afrin, controlled by a Kurdish militia, remained an issue.

Turkey’s army began setting up observation posts in Idlib this month under a deal with Russia and Iran to reduce fighting between insurgents and the Syrian government, but the deployment was also seen partly aimed at containing the YPG militia.

Erdogan was speaking in parliament to members of his ruling AK Party.