BRITISH MILITARY CLAIMS IT STRUCK SYRIAN TROOPS IN ACT OF “SELF-DEFENSE”

FILE IMAGE: Bloomberg

The Btirish Air Force directly targeted Syrian govrnment forces near the border with Iraq and Jordan last month, the Sunday Times reported citing a spokesman for the British Defence Ministry.

According to the report, a British Typhoon fighter jet dropped a 500lb Paveway IV bomb on pro-government forces during a firefight near a British and US Special Forces base in the desert near al-Tanf in the border area.

“As an act of collective self-defence, RAF Typhoons dropped a single Paveway IV on the position, which successfully removed the threat to our coalition partners,” the spokesman said.

This was the first time when the British military bombed Syrian forces since it took part in a series of the US-led strikes on Syrian government forces in April.

The area of At Tanf, located at the Damascus-Baghdad highway, is occupied by the US-led coalition and its proxies. The coalition claims that this is a “de-escalation zone” and it has to keep its military presence there because of the war on ISIS.

Meanwhile, the key area where ISIS terrorists operate in southeastern Syria is the area of At Tanf from which they carry out operations against Syrian government targets. It looks the coalition’s war on ISIS is not very successful there.

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