Meanwhile, in Syria

[Purple]

I'm not quite sure, is Russia claiming they targeted oil smuggler trucks and stuff close to the Turkish border and hinting that this might be why Turkey retaliated?

Pretty much. I can't find it now but someone on another forum posted an article that basically wrote something to the effect of "Putin says the turks shot down his airplane because it was bombing an oil smuggling operation that's being run by Edrogans son."

[Zaune]

Is that supposed to sound better? If Russian intelligence had solid IDs on trucks being used for smuggling then they could intercept them at the border.

[cosmicalstorm]

They are bringing jamming to harass Turkey. I thought they already had some but it was probably used elsewhere. Would it be possible for Russia to just turn off all cellphones in rebel parts of the country?

As Tensions Rise Electronic Warfare Launched by Russia in Syria

image: http://edge.liveleak.com/80281E/u/u/ll2/attention.gif
Part of channel(s): Syria (current event)

image: https://cdn.liveleak.com/80281E/ll_a_s/ ... c_rate=230
[Click to view image: '051_1448633960-7_1448634006.jpg'] The Russian news media has announced that Russia is intended to transport its electronic warfare with the institution of jamming systems to Syria. This is another Moscow reaction to the Turkish air force attack to Su-24 that brought down a Russian warplane.

Russia also will install in Syria a highly advanced missile system capable of shooting down aircraft from the ground.

Russia’s massive military buildup in the region comes as its forces begin to suffer casualties as a result of the country’s efforts to defend President Bashar al-Assad and combat ISIS militants.

Turkish forces shot down a Russian Su-24 fighter earlier this week for reportedly crossing into the country’s airspace while conducting strikes against ISIS forces in Syria.

"The incident has roiled tensions between Russia and Turkey with Vladimir Putin describing the strike as a stab in the back by the accomplices of terrorism."

Russian Lieutenant-General Evgeny Buzhinsky, in responding to the incident, revealed that Russia will begin using electronic jamming systems that are based both on the ground and installed on special aircraft. The defensive weapons are aimed at stopping a similar attack in the future.

“Regarding the possible impact of this incident on the further developments of the operation in Syria, I think that from now on, our pilots will be more attentive and if the Turks continue behaving in such a manner, Russia will have to resort to electronic jamming and other warfare equipment, including special aircraft with special equipment on board, in order to protect our pilots from being stricken with missiles,” Buzhinsky said, according to Sputnik News. foxnews reported.

- See more at: http://en.alalam.ir/news/1764011#sthash.M6J3tDSw.dpuf

For more news, videos, and photos on Russia - Turkey clashes see:

Lavrov: Turkey ‘Crossed the Line’ With Plane Downing + VIDEO - See more at: http://en.alalam.ir/news/1764008#sthash.rPOi93F8.dpuf

http://en.alalam.ir/news/1763973
http://en.alalam.ir/news/1763959
http://en.alalam.ir/news/1763947
http://en.alalam.ir/news/1763912
http://en.alalam.ir/news/1763896

Read more at http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=051_1448 ... BOjXjer.99

[cosmicalstorm]

Erdogan sounds cocky.

Erdogan warns Putin: Don't play with fire

Turkish president denies his country is buying oil from ISIS, and insists downing of Russian plane was according to rules of engagement, while trying to lower the flames over the incident.

Ynetnews, Reuters
Published: 11.27.15, 14:49 / Israel News
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Friday warned Russia not to "play with fire" in a dispute over the downing of a Russian warplane this week, but added he did not want to harm relations with Moscow.
"We very sincerely recommend to Russia not to play with fire," Erdogan told supporters during a speech in Bayburt, in northeast Turkey. "We really attach a lot of importance to our relations with Russia... We don't want these relations to suffer harm in any way."
He had said that Turkey did not down the Russian aircraft intentionally, but rather was adhering to "automatic rules of engagement."

The Turkish president also said he was "uncomfortable" with Russia's efforts to take the dispute into other areas of the relations between the two countries.
Erdogan was likely referring to recent reports that Russia had banned Turkish imports and goods from crossing into its border.
Erdogan said he may speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a climate summit in Paris next week, a discussion that would be welcomed by the United States and EU, both of which fear the spat has distracted from the battle against Islamic State militants in Syria.
But Putin's aide said on Friday that the Russian president has refused to contact Erdogan because Ankara does not want to apologize for the downing of the Russian warplane.
"We see Turkey's unwillingness to simply apologize for the incident with the plane," Ushakov told reporters when asked why Putin has refused to talk with Erdogan.

Ushakov said the Kremlin had received a request from Ankara regarding a possible meeting between the two leaders at a climate conference in Paris on Nov. 30 and that Putin would be informed about it later on Friday.
In Paris, Putin will meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss the Syrian crisis and Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He will also meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel for talks about Syria and Ukraine, Ushakov said.

The speaker of the lower house of the Russian parliament, the Duma, was quoted by Reuters as saying that aside from the use of international law, Russia reserved the right to respond the downing militarily.
Sergey Naryshkin arrived in Romania on Friday for a meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation.
Russian President Vladimir Putin recently ended security cooperation with Ankara and asked Russian citizens to avoid visiting Turkey.
On Wednesday, Minister of Agriculture Alexander Tkachev said that Russia may substitute imports of vegetables from Turkey with those supplied from Iran, Israel, and Morocco due to a "breach in sanitary regulations."



Relations between the former Cold War antagonists have hit a recent nadir after Turkey shot down the jet near the Syrian border

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340 ... 08,00.html

[cosmicalstorm]

Will France support Assad?

PARIS - France's foreign minister said on Friday troops loyal to President Syrian President Bashar-Assad could be used to fight Islamic State, although he reiterated Paris' long-standing position that the Syrian leader needed to step aside.

"Troops on the ground cannot be ours, but (there can be) Syrian soldiers from the Free Syrian Army, Sunni Arab states, and why not regime troops," Laurent Fabius told RTL radio without specifying exactly whether he meant immediately or in the long-term.

Diplomats were not immediately able to clarify Fabius' comments. However, they said he has indicated in the past that Syrian government troops could be used to fight Islamic State once a national unity government was in place.

http://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/Fran ... SIS-435559

[Purple]

Is that supposed to sound better? If Russian intelligence had solid IDs on trucks being used for smuggling then they could intercept them at the border.

Assuming it is true, and that's a big if, it would mean that the turks have a vested interest in preventing the Russians from cutting off ISISs lifeline in the form of the oil trade.

[Vendetta]

Is that supposed to sound better? If Russian intelligence had solid IDs on trucks being used for smuggling then they could intercept them at the border.

Assuming it is true, and that's a big if, it would mean that the turks have a vested interest in preventing the Russians from cutting off ISISs lifeline in the form of the oil trade.

Victories over ISIS tend to benefit the Kurds, Turkey has an interest in preventing that, especially close to its borders.

[Channel72]

"Don't play with fire?" Please, Erdogan is a fucking idiot. He's antagonizing Russia for no reason here, with these half-baked non-apologies/thinly-veiled threats. Normally, I wouldn't care, because I don't really care for Putin, but it really irritates me that Erdogan doesn't even think twice about dragging NATO into this stupid ego-fest. Now Putin is escalating things by bringing out more military hardware along the Turkish border, to protect further bombers during sorties. There is no way Turkey can compete with Russia from a military angle, so Erdogan is obviously relying on NATO to back him up - in case Putin decides to, you know, "sack" Constantinople.... This whole thing is really, in my opinion, a serious abuse of our relationship with Turkey on the part of Erdogan.

As for Turkey knowingly benefiting from the ISIS oil trade - really, nobody can say for sure. My guess, based on pretty much nothing, is that Turkey is not actively trying to encourage or enable this oil trade, but that they're sort of not really doing anything to prevent it, i.e. basically turning a blind eye, since it benefits them. There's been various accusations floating around that Erdogan's son, Bilal, is in fact directly benefiting from this oil trade. But none of these accusations really come from reputable or mainstream sources - so it remains speculation.

Even if there is some truth to Bilal's involvement here, I doubt it is directly related with Turkey's bizarre decision to shoot down the Russian jet. I think that was just basically Erdogan being a pompous, insecure asshole that wants to show the world that he's tough.

[cosmicalstorm]

Some comprehensive info on the downing of Russian jet.

To recapitulate all the facts known so far:

- Usually it is said that the two THK F-16s that intercepted the Russian formation two days ago came from 8 AJÜ, Diyabakir. I think this is so because F-16s from 8 AJÜ are the most active over south-eastern Turkey, Syria and Iraq - simply because of proximity of that base to this area. However, the THK is regularly deploying F-16s (and F-4E-2020s) from other units to Diyabakir.

- Indeed, some reports from yesterday evening have indicated that the F-16s were actually from 3 AJÜ, Konya. If so, that would make them assigned to 132 Filo 'Hancer'.

- They were certainly supported by one of B737-700 AEW&Cs (sometimes designated as E-7Ts, because Australians are using the E-7 designation for that type), and these are operated from 3 AJÜ too, by 131 Filo Ejder.

- They intercepted a formation of two Su-24Ms (unclear if either of the two was M2 or SVP-24, or one of 'vanilla' Su-24Ms deployed at BAAIAP), underway at an altitude of 6,000m.

- The Russian Number 1 turned away from Turkey moments before engagement, Number 2 didn't follow his flight lead but continued in western direction - and was shot down.

- The missile fired by Turks was apparently an AIM-120C-7, launched from about 15-20km (definitely BVR, then Turks report they didn't know what were they engaging).

- The downed Su-24M is said to have been bort '19', flown by Lt Col Oleg Peshkov, and Capt Konstantin Muratkin. Both ejected, but Peshkov was KIA by a small group of Turkish Jihadists that have sided with the JAN.

- During the CSAR op for the downed crew, Russians lost one of two Mi-8ATMSh and two Mi-24s involved. This was bort '252' (RF-95601), together with one of 12 crewmembers and Marines on board: Aleksander Pazynich was shot in the neck and KIA. The helicopter made an emergency landing, was evacuated, and then knocked out by a TOW fored by the 1st (Turkomen) Coastal Division of the Free Syrian Army.

- The downed helicopter crew, and Muratkin, were subsequently extracted by a team of 12 Syrian and 6 Hezbollah/Lebanon 'special force' operators.

Registration necessary
http://www.acig.info/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=7350

[cmdrjones]

Meanwhile, what can only be described as a massive dick move and most likely a war crime, the Russians have started bombarding ethnic turkmen villages, causing thousands of them to flee into Turkey.


Completely disproportionate response.
Guess they are determined to hurt the Turks where they can. It should be noted that those are also the areas where the people shot at the downed Russian pilot and kiled him.

hardly surprising is it?
This kind of disproportionate response is calculated to make the party that struck first and is subsequently hit in return think "Oh shit, i'd better not do that again!"

[Borgholio]

Belgian physicists have studied the incident and believe that both Turkey and Russia are lying about the incident. Surprised?

http://www.iflscience.com/physics/physi ... downed-jet

Following the recent downing of a Russian military jet by Turkish forces somewhere along the border of Syria and Turkey, both nations offered very different accounts of what happened. Two astrophysicists at the Belgian university KU Leuven have used simple Newtonian mechanics to show why both countries’ accounts cannot possibly be correct.

Last week, a Russian military jet was shot down by Turkey, who claims that it violated their airspace for 17 seconds, and ignored 10 warnings in the space of five minutes. Russia claims that it was shot down over Syrian airspace, and that it never violated Turkish territory. Two Belgian researchers decided to review the video footage of the incident to try and ascertain which account is more accurate.

When the first jet is hit, it begins tumbling to the ground, falling for 30 seconds before it impacts the hillside. Assuming the pilot lost control of the plane immediately, the downwards movement is only dependent on gravitational acceleration. Backtracking this acceleration downwards, they calculated that the plane was traveling at a height of 4,500 meters (14,800 feet) when it was hit – roughly consistent with Turkish accounts at this point.

Turkey claimed a specific crash site, 8 kilometers (5 miles) from where it was hit. This means that it must have been traveling at an initial speed of 980 kilometers per hour (610 miles per hour). Turkish officials say that the jet was traveling through 2 kilometers (1.24 miles) of Turkish airspace for 17 seconds.

At this speed, however, it would have only taken seven seconds. In addition to this, if the jet was traveling at that speed, it would cover a distance of 80 kilometers (50 miles) in five minutes – making the Turkish military’s statement of “ten warnings in five minutes” seem highly implausible; the warnings could not have all fitted into just seven seconds. The warnings made would therefore have been based on mere speculation as to whether or not the plane was crossing the border.

Although this makes the Turkish claims fairly suspicious, the Russian claims are also quite dubious, according to the researchers. The Russian map that apparently shows the jet not violating Turkish airspace at all shows that it changed course by 90 degrees when it was hit by the missile. “A change of course of 90 degrees can only be achieved with an object that’s many times heavier or faster than the jet,” the physicists note on their blog.

A surface-to-air missile would not have caused this to happen, implying the 90-degree turn was caused by the pilot’s own maneuvering. Therefore, despite Russia’s claims to the contrary, the jet was likely not actively avoiding Turkish territory.

So, according to science, both Turkey and Russia are, to some degree, contriving falsehoods.

[Ace Pace]

Belgian physicists have studied the incident and believe that both Turkey and Russia are lying about the incident. Surprised?

http://www.iflscience.com/physics/physi ... downed-jet

You're quoting fucking IFLscience as a reputable source? So lets check the source...

Using google translate they're doing a lot of very fun simplications..Such as asumming vertical movement is solely impacted by gravity (uh physics wat), no friction (physics wat), that it's impossible to predict fighter flight paths because "very agile" (wat)...

I'd take issue with your source, with your sources source.

[Borgholio]

Belgian physicists have studied the incident and believe that both Turkey and Russia are lying about the incident. Surprised?

http://www.iflscience.com/physics/physi ... downed-jet

You're quoting fucking IFLscience as a reputable source? So lets check the source...

Using google translate they're doing a lot of very fun simplications..Such as asumming vertical movement is solely impacted by gravity (uh physics wat), no friction (physics wat), that it's impossible to predict fighter flight paths because "very agile" (wat)...

I'd take issue with your source, with your sources source.

I quoted it as opposed to quoting the Belgian university since it was already translated into English. I didn't know how to post the link to Google Translate here.

With that said, despite being overly simplified, you still misread part of it. They never said that it's impossible to predict the fighter flight path. They said that fighters are so agile, that it should have been no problem for the Russians to avoid Turkish airspace once they were warned about it.

[Grumman]

I'll second Ace Pace and say that it is a blatantly stupid article.

One, fighter-bombers are objects designed to keep themselves aloft through aerodynamic lift. As such, you cannot simply map out a parabola based on its present location and velocity and assume that it will end up where that parabola meets the ground - it may glide further than it would in a vacuum, or it may fall short if damage or orientation causes it to have greater air resistance than during normal flight.

Two, that the warnings started before the plane actually crossed the border would not mean that Turkey is lying. It would make it more likely for the Russian aircraft to initially dismiss them as irrelevant, yes, but there is nothing sinister about starting to warn a foreign combat aircraft that they are approaching your airspace before they actually cross the border.

Three, that the pilot performed a 90 degree turn does not mean that turn was not caused by the missile strike. Pilots don't want to eat a face full of missile, and so the pilot making a last ditch effort to force it to overshoot is not completely implausible.

[ArmorPierce]

At this speed, however, it would have only taken seven seconds. In addition to this, if the jet was traveling at that speed, it would cover a distance of 80 kilometers (50 miles) in five minutes – making the Turkish military’s statement of “ten warnings in five minutes” seem highly implausible; the warnings could not have all fitted into just seven seconds. The warnings made would therefore have been based on mere speculation as to whether or not the plane was crossing the border.

This makes 0 sense and makes the entire 'objective' review suspect.

1. It's a red herring. Of course 5 minutes /= 7 (or 17 seconds). Turkey claimed that they began issuing warnings prior to crossing of the border.
2. United States military has corroborated Turkey's communication

Washington (AFP) - The US military backed up Turkey's claim Tuesday that Turkish pilots warned a Russian jet 10 times -- but failed to get a response -- before shooting it down after it briefly entered Turkish airspace.

"We were able to hear everything that was going on, these (communications) were on open channels," Baghdad-based military spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said in a video call with reporters.

http://news.yahoo.com/us-says-forces-no ... 30424.html
3. The general response is that Russia was invited to fly their planes in Syria and Turkey's warnings prior to entering their border is meaningless. Another red herring, and silly. That right ends at Turkey's borders and It demonstrates a good faith effort to avoid the situation on Turkey's part.

[Patroklos]

What language were the warnings in?

[ArmorPierce]

What language were the warnings in?

Communication is in English. You can listen to a piece here http://theaviationist.com/2015/11/24/au ... uaf-su-24/

Turkey has been very transparent in this entire event. They have released the audio and their tracking data regarding the incident.

[Patroklos]

Awesome. There is zero reason to assume all or even most of Russia's military pilots speak English. NATO pilots sure as hell don't though many do.

The English requirements are for international commercial flights only, and even that was only mandated inside the last decade. And even then only to treaty members (though that's pretty much everyone).

The point being a radio warning is not a free pass to shoot people. There should have been a VID pass at the very least. Even when we are patrolling enemy skies we require VID in most instances and even then they get screwed up.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_Blac ... n_incident

That incident was over hostile (though not wartime) Iraq where previous hostile fire had been exchanged by both sides not to mention being mere years after a major war and still the US VIDed every target before firing on them. Hell, even if you continue to be blind to to willful ignorance of Turkey to the moral and real politic consequences of their stupidity, they should be worried about friendly fire incidents at the very least. 90% of the air traffic over Syria is allied and much of it is operating out of Turkey itself!

[Broomstick]

Awesome. There is zero reason to assume all or even most of Russia's military pilots speak English. NATO pilots sure as hell don't though many do.

The English requirements are for international commercial flights only, and even that was only mandated inside the last decade. And even then only to treaty members (though that's pretty much everyone).

Although not formally mandated the use of "aviation English" has been recommended for decades and it would be uncommon for pilots NOT to have some notion of it. "Aviation English" isn't full English fluency, it's knowing a pared down vocabulary strictly related to flying. Just as every pilot knows "Mayday" (which is from the French for "help me!"), which has been the official distress call from the late 1940's, and the IACO alphabet, it would be strange for pilots not to know other internationally used words and phrases even if not specifically required.

Granted, militaries can make their own rules and requirements. If you're going to find a pilot that knows no English but crosses international borders it would be in the military.

On the other hand, if you're operating over/near a war zone and start getting a repetitive message over the radio, even if you don't understand it, the notion that it might be a warning shouldn't be an impossible leap.

I agree, too, that a flyby should have been part of the who process for positive identificaiton.

Oh, by the way, if you want an internationally valid pilot license of any sort, even a "private pilot" one such as I have knowledge of "aviation English" is NOT optional. It's not limited to just commercial pilots. (Of course, English being my native language that requirement wasn't a big deal for me.)

[Thanas]

Even if we assume that crappy English warnings that are very hard to hear are reasons, they broadcasted that warning even before he entered. In fact, there is no reason to assume that they do not blast warnings at everything in Syrian territory inside that stupid 5 miles zone they claim for themselves in Syria.

[Grumman]

Awesome. There is zero reason to assume all or even most of Russia's military pilots speak English.

Then it's their own fault they got shot. You can't pull that shit if you're carrying a pistol, let alone a bomber. If a Russian soldier walked into Turkey carrying a pistol, and he did not respond to a Turkish police officer who was trying to talk to him about why he's in Turkey with a gun he would get shot. If he lacks the ability to communicate with the Turkish authorities, it is his fault for entering Turkey with a deadly weapon while lacking the ability to communicate with the Turkish authorities.

[Thanas]

17 seconds is no reason to shoot anyone down when he poses no threat.

[LaCroix]

Just one little bit of information. My brother was a civilian flight controller, and had to deal with Russian freight and passenger aircraft, occasionally. These Russian aircraft didn't even use feet or knots, their instuments were metric. So whenever their pilots contacted them, you not even had to deal with their atrocious English, you always had to wait for them to mentally convert the "official" values to what it should read on their instruments. Sometimes, they had the pilot ask them if their value equaled this or that value in metric.

Expecting Russia to have English speaking fighter pilots (who never needed to interact with civilian controllers outside of Russia, where they probably would be contacted in Russian) is a bit far-fetched. Also, if Turkey did blare these warning at any aircraft near the border (where Turkey hade unilaterally declared a no-fly zone), constantly, even when the planes were not on course or close to crossing the border, I would not be surprised that they simply muted that "annoying" frequency.

[Patroklos]

Awesome. There is zero reason to assume all or even most of Russia's military pilots speak English.

Then it's their own fault they got shot. You can't pull that shit if you're carrying a pistol, let alone a bomber. If a Russian soldier walked into Turkey carrying a pistol, and he did not respond to a Turkish police officer who was trying to talk to him about why he's in Turkey with a gun he would get shot. If he lacks the ability to communicate with the Turkish authorities, it is his fault for entering Turkey with a deadly weapon while lacking the ability to communicate with the Turkish authorities.

Carrying a pistol. No. Using it or pointing it at you yes. Remember air controllers can easily discern attack profiles. I've done it myself. I would have shot down quite a few Iranians if we applied Turkish logic.

Let's also remember that of the paired flight being tracked one turned away from the border. Why is anyone pretending this looked like an attack again?

[The Romulan Republic]

Another nasty incident is shaping up:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-ea ... 2570749303#_=_

The Syrian government has said three of its soldiers have been killed in a US-led coalition air strike, but the coalition has denied responsibility.
The foreign ministry said jets fired missiles at an army camp in Deir al-Zour province, which is largely controlled by the Islamic State group.
The ministry condemned what it called an act of "flagrant aggression".
However, a coalition spokesman insisted that its forces had carried out no strikes in the area near the camp.
The coalition has been targeting Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria since September 2014, and does not co-ordinate with the authorities in Damascus.
IS militants in Deir al-Zour 'seek underage girls'
What is life like in IS-held Raqqa?
Activists criticise Raqqa air strikes
The Syrian foreign ministry said four coalition warplanes fired nine missiles at the camp in Deir al-Zour province on Sunday evening, killing three soldiers and wounding 13 others.
Three armoured vehicles, four military vehicles, heavy machine-guns and an arms and ammunition depot were destroyed, it added.
The ministry did not say which camp was hit, but the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights earlier reported that coalition jets had bombed part of the Saeqa camp, near the town of Ayyash in northern Deir al-Zour.
The UK-based monitoring group put the death toll at four.
Map showing Russian and US-led air strikes and who controls the areas on the ground
"The Syrian Arab Republic strongly condemns this flagrant aggression by the US-led coalition forces, which blatantly violates the objectives of the UN Charter," the foreign ministry warned.
The ministry called on the UN Security Council to "take urgent measures to prevent such aggressions from occurring again".
It added that such "aggression hinders the efforts to fight terrorism, and proves that the US-led coalition lacks seriousness and credibility to effectively fight terrorism".
However, coalition spokesman Col Steve Warren denied it was responsible.
"We've seen those Syrian reports but we did not conduct any strikes in that part of Deir al-Zour yesterday. So we see no evidence," he told the AFP news agency.
Col Warren said the only strikes in Deir al-Zour targeted a wellhead at an oil field 55km (34 miles) away from the area where the soldiers were reportedly killed.
Children ride a bicycle in Deir al-Zour, Syria (23 January 2014)Image copyrightAFP
Image caption
Islamic State controls most of Deir al-Zour province, including almost all of its capital
"There were no human beings in the area that we struck yesterday," he added.
US President Barack Obama's special envoy to the coalition, Brett McGurk, also wrote on Twitter: "Reports of coalition involvement are false."
IS controls most of Deir al-Zour province, including almost all of its capital.
The province links the group's headquarters in Raqqa with territory controlled by the group in western Iraq, and its oilfields are also a major source of revenue for IS.
If coalition jets did hit the Syrian army camp - reported to be close to ground held by IS - it would be the first time such a thing is known to have happened since the US began air strikes in Syria, says the BBC's Jim Muir in Beirut.
The coalition has been stepping up its attacks in recent weeks on IS positions and oil installations in northern and eastern Syria. Broadening the scope brings with it a risk that unintended targets might be hit, our correspondent adds.
Last week, the UK decided to participate in the air strikes in Syria, extending its existing bombing campaign against IS in Iraq.
Russia has also been bombing IS militants in Syria and other opponents of President Bashar al-Assad since September.

Personally, I very much doubt America did this deliberately, because it would be utterly stupid and counterproductive and at odds with their apparent policy regarding Syria. However, I can imagine this being an accident that they are now trying to cover up rather than owning up to it. That would be pretty much par for the course. On the other hand, though, Assad and his regime have fuck all when it comes to credibility.

Regardless, the America-bashers and Assad apologists (including, likely, Russia) will probably tend to treat Assad's story as pure truth, while the US nationalists will probably tend to insist the US could have done no wrong. Because fuck facts when you're an ideologue.