Turnbull admits Australia involved in US-led airstrikes that killed Syrian soldiers

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has expressed his regret in the country’s involvement in the air strike that killed Syrian soldiers fighting the Islamic State. Australian aircraft joined the US-led coalition operation that mistook at least 60 Syrian soldiers as militants on Saturday.

The air strike near Deir ez-Zour, Syria, killed at least 62 soldiers and wounded more than 100. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights pinned the fatalities to at least 90 soldiers.

The Australian Defence has explained that the coalition aircraft mistakenly killed the Syrian army troops, believing them to be members of the ISIS. The raid was immediately called off after Russia informed them that Syrian military were hit.

Turnbull has admitted that Australia was involved in the raid, though he regretted the outcome.

“I can confirm that Australian aircraft were involved in the sortie that has been the subject of the recent news reporting. I can say that as soon as the Coalition commanders were advised by the Russian command in the region that Syrian forces had been affected, the sortie was discontinued,” he told reporters in New York on Monday.

“We regret the loss of life and injury to any Syrian personnel affected. That is all I can say about the incident at the moment.”

The airstrikes were the first recorded since the ceasefire began last week. Russia questioned the motive. It claimed that the strikes were a result of the US’s “stubborn refusal” to cooperate with Russia in fighting the ISIS. Russia called for an emergency closed door security council meeting with the United Nations to discuss the incident, accusing the US-led coalition of endangering Syria.

US ambassador to the UN Samantha Power called out Russia for its “cheap point-scoring.” When Turnbull was asked by a reporter if he agreed with Power, he refused to comment on Russia’s response.

However, he agreed with a reporter’s assessment that Russia had been hypocritical in calling for the UN meeting when it “deliberately bombed hospitals in Aleppo and elsewhere.”

“Those contradictions are obvious but at the moment just for our part, you can point out those contradictions, there is obviously a lot of politics involved in this,” the Australian PM said.