On Friday, Dunford said he had "made a commitment that they [strikes] would not happen again if our forces were not threatened, and everybody understands what the rules are."
He commented on the US-led coalition's May 18 airstrikes against a Syrian military convoy near the town of al-Tanf within an established de-escalation zone. The airstrikes were conducted due to a threat posed by the government forces to US forces and their allies, a US defense official told Sputnik. The attack left six men killed and three wounded.
"The Pentagon military apparently do not get the idea that they would not evade threat unless they withdraw from Syria's sovereign territory where they had intruded in defiance of all norms of international law and the UN Charter," Klishas said.
Syrian officials called them an act of aggression and state terrorism by the United States. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called the attack "illegitimate," "illegal" and a "gross violation of Syria's sovereignty."
This was the second time that Donald Trump administration has used military force directly against Damascus.
Furthermore, on September 16, US-led coalition aircraft carried out four strikes against the Syrian Army near the Deir ez-Zor airport, killing nearly 100 people, according to reports.
The US-led coalition of 68 nations is conducting airstrikes, ground-based and rocket-propelled artillery fire against Daesh in Syria and Iraq. The strikes in Iraq are conducted in support of the Iraqi government, but those in Syria are not authorized by the UN Security Council or the government of President Bashar Assad.
