Western-backed Syrian opposition fighters holding a strategic swathe of the desert southeast stretching to the Iraqi border said they came under major attack on Tuesday from regime forces and allied Iranian-backed militias supported by Russian air power, like reported by arabnews.com.
They said hundreds of troops with dozens of armored vehicles including tanks had surged into the Bir Qassab area some 75 km southeast of Damascus toward the Badia region that skirts the borders with Jordan and Iraq.
Bir Qassab straddles the route to the eastern suburbs of Damascus, near the Dumeir air base, which is also a key opposition supply line toward areas they control further southeast.
“The (Syrian) regime and militia ground attack started this dawn and our forces are holding on to their positions,” said Saad Al-Haj, spokesman for Osoud Al-Sharqiya, one of the largest opposition groups operating in the area.
Russia accused the US-led coalition of “complicity with terrorism” after an American warplane downed a drone operated by pro-regime forces in southern Syria.
“In Syria this type of strike is akin to complicity with terrorism,” Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the Interfax news agency.
The Iranian-made drone was downed Tuesday, just days after a US warplane shot down a Syrian regime fighter jet in the country’s north.
In Tuesday’s incident, the US-led coalition said an F-15E Strike Eagle jet destroyed an armed Shahed-129 drone in the early hours of the morning as it neared Al-Tanf base along Syria’s eastern border. “It displayed hostile intent and advanced on coalition forces,” the statement said.
In another development, the US military confirmed it killed a top Daesh cleric in an airstrike. Central Command said Turki Al-Binali was killed on May 31. Activists and Daesh supporters reported his death at the time, but the military is only confirming it now.
Meanwhile, US senators called on Congress to take back its authority to determine whether the country goes to war, saying recent US strikes in Syria were not covered by existing authorizations for the use of military force.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has begun considering legislation that would cover military action in Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Libya and Yemen against Daesh, Al-Qaeda and other militant groups.
