The Russian Defense Ministry has urged a comment from the Pentagon after photos of a purported US missile fragment found in the rubble of a bombed Syrian mosque emerged online.
“A photo showing a fragment of an air-to-surface AGM-114 Hellfire missile has emerged. It leaves no chance for the US-led coalition to remain silent as usual and for diplomats to spout anti-Russian rhetoric,” Major-General Igor Konashenkov said Friday.
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Russia is expecting the Pentagon to comment on the deadly airstrike on a mosque in Syria’s Aleppo province, where at least 40 civilians were feared killed overnight into Friday, March 17.
“I think we should expect comments from the US partners anytime soon,” Konashenkov noted.
The news of the strike was broken by the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the White Helmets activists who shared the first pictures from the scene. Some news outlets were quick to lay the blame for the attack on Moscow or Damascus.
Tragic mistakes that claim lives of civilians do happen at war, the Russian spokesman said, however adding that “before releasing anti-Russian false stories, they [media sources] should do their job as professionals by thoroughly studying the facts and getting to the bottom of things.”
The authenticity of the photo supposedly showing a metal piece of a missile with a serial number inscription is yet to be confirmed.
Russian and Syrian forces, as well as the US-led coalition air powers are known to be conducting operations in the affected area. The US admitted to targeting a building located next to the mosque where an Al-Qaeda terrorists meeting allegedly took place, noting that the mosque itself wasn’t hit.
“We did not strike nor did we hit the mosque that was within 50 feet of the half of the building that we struck where a meeting of Al-Qaeda in Syria was taking place,” said CENTCOM spokesman Colonel John Thomas, according to AFP.
