Sky News: An aid convoy attacked in Syria was travelling with a militant pick-up truck armed with a heavy mortar, Moscow claims.
No-one has claimed responsibility for the airstrike on Monday evening which killed around 20 aid workers delivering humanitarian supplies to civilians in rebel-held Urm al Kubra near Aleppo.
The US believes two Russian Su-24 jets carried out the attack, based on location and timing.
But Moscow has denied it was behind the raid and released drone footage of what it claimed was the convoy being accompanied by the armed truck.
The vehicle was driving alongside the fleet of trucks parked by a warehouse on the east side of Urum al Kubra. The drone moved away to a different area before the strike.
Russian Major General Igor Konashenkov said: “The examination of the video footage made via drones of the movement of the humanitarian convoy in areas controlled by militants in the province of Aleppo has revealed new details.
“The video clearly shows how terrorists are redeploying a pickup with a large-calibre mortar on it using the convoy as a cover.”
Earlier, US Colonel John Thomas said the deaths were not the result of coalition military action, which led him to conclude responsibility lay with Russia or Syria’s military.
“It was certainly not the coalition who struck from the air; it does look like an airstrike,” he said, adding “the only other entities that fly in Syria are Russia and Syria”.
All aid convoys in Syria have been suspended after the attack on 18 trucks carrying humanitarian supplies.
The convoy was attacked hours after four US-led coalition airstrikes – in which a British Reaper drone was said to have played a part – killed 60 Syrian soldiers at a base near Deir al Zor airport.
Washington insisted its intended target was Islamic State militants and it has apologised to the Syrian regime, while the Ministry of Defence said British forces would never “intentionally” strike Syria’s military.
A former US Ambassador to Syria has dismissed suggestions the convoy could have been targeted in retaliation for the killings at Deir al Zor, suggesting Syria’s aim is to block aid from getting to Aleppo.
“The United States did not hit an aid convoy or a target that was under protection,” Robert Ford told Sky’s Adam Boulton.
“If it was going to be a strict tit-for-tat it would have made sense for the Russians or the Syrians to have bombed groups with whom the United States has ties, either in the Aleppo area or down south on the border.”
