US-backed Syrian militias said Russian warplanes struck their positions in Deir Ezzor province yesterday near a natural gas field they seized from Islamic State last week, but Russia denied it.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias fighting with a US-led coalition said the attack killed one of its fighters and injured two others.
Russia’s RIA news agency cited Major-General Igor Konashenkov as issuing the denial and saying Russia was always careful to ensure its air strikes were accurate.
A spokesman for the US-led coalition, Colonel Ryan Dillon, said rounds had hit in the area around the SDF but he could not confirm they were fired by Russia. Russia and the United States back separate offensives against Islamic State in eastern Syria, with both advancing in oil-rich Deir Ezzor bordering Iraq.
The assaults are converging on Islamic State from opposite sides of the Euphrates river that bisects Deir Ezzor, the militants’ last major foothold in Syria.
With Russian air power and militias, Syrian troops closed in from the west.
A Kurdish commander of the SDF, which has advanced from the east with US jets and special forces, told Reuters yesterday the alliance expected to completely push Islamic State out of its former Syrian headquarters of Raqqa in less than a month.
The SDF also captured the large gas field on the Euphrates’ bank on Saturday.
“Russian and regime forces have mounted a treacherous attack against our forces (there)...with artillery and aircraft,” the SDF said in a statement.
“We will not stand by with our arms crossed and we will use our legitimate right to self-defence.”
The Russian and US-led forces battling Islamic State in Syria have mostly stayed out of each other’s way, with the river often acting as a dividing line.
But the proximity of their offensives has at times raised the prospect of clashes that could stoke tensions between the competing world powers.
Last week, the Pentagon accused Moscow of bombing SDF positions on the eastern side of the river. Russia denied this, warning the United States it would target the SDF if its own forces came under fire.

Air strikes in Syria’s Idlib kill 37 civilians: monitor
Russian air strikes on northwest Syria’s mainly militant-controlled province of Idlib yesterday killed at least 37 civilians including 12 children, a Britain-based monitor said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it was the highest civilian death toll in Idlib since the region was designated in May as one of Syria’s “de-escalation” zones under an accord between regime allies Russia and Iran, and rebel backer Turkey. “The air raids struck several locations and villages in the district of Jisr al-Shughur, leaving 37 dead among civilians, including 12 children,” Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said, updating an earlier toll of 27 dead.