More than 60 Syrian government soldiers were killed and dozens of others injured Saturday in U.S.-led coalition air strikes on an air base in the east of the war-torn country, the Russian army said. “Warplanes from the international anti-jihadist coalition carried out four air strikes today against Syrian forces surrounded by the Islamic State group in the Deir Ezzor air base,” the Army said in a statement. “Sixty-two Syrian soldiers were killed and a hundred others were injured in these strikes.”Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin had accused Syrian rebels of using a fragile ceasefire to regroup, as diplomatic tensions between Moscow and Washington simmered over a lack of humanitarian aid access. The closed-door consultations were scrapped after Moscow and Washington failed to agree over disclosing details of the ceasefire to the council. Mr. Putin, a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, said he remained “positive” about the truce but lashed out at rebels.

Source: The Hindu September 17, 2016 22:52 UTC