\n Belgium on Thursday demanded that Russia formally withdraw claims that two of its F-16 fighter jets killed six civilians in an airstrike near the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo.\n<\/p>\n
\n Belgium had summoned the Russian ambassador to Brussels on Wednesday to protest the charges which it dismissed as \"totally groundless and unsubstantiated.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n A defence ministry statement Thursday said the government's position remained unchanged and it expected \"a formal retraction\" by Russia after Moscow submitted \"so-called evidence\" to the Belgian embassy there.\n<\/p>\n
\n Instead, this evidence, consisting of a map with a flight path on it, proved that Moscow was fabricating the claim, it said.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"From this map it is evident that the IFF (identification friend or foe) numbers attributed to the aircraft ... do not belong to Belgian Air Force aircraft and that the so-called evidence has thus been fabricated,\" it said.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"In this, the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation has itself demonstrated that the allegations towards Belgium are groundless.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n The Belga news agency said the Russian ambassador, called in Thursday, also provided no new proof during a \"disappointing\" hour-long meeting.\n<\/p>\n
\n Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders was quoted as saying that Russia \"was trying to cover up its own collateral damage in Syria.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n Russia said Wednesday \"six people were killed and four injured to various degrees as a result of bombing that destroyed two homes\" in the village of Hassajik in the Aleppo region.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Two of Belgium's F-16s were identified at that time in the region,\" the statement added.\n<\/p>\n
\n Russia launched a massive air campaign in September last year to back longtime ally Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and recent attacks on rebels in Aleppo have drawn a chorus of outrage at the deaths of civilians and destruction of hospitals.\n<\/p>\n
\n On Tuesday, Moscow announced a short halt to the attacks and on Thursday extended it to allow civilians and rebels to leave the city's rebel-held east.\n<\/p>\n
\n The West has accused Russia of potential war crimes over its bombing of Aleppo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Belgium on Thursday demanded that Russia formally withdraw claims that two of its F-16 fighter jets killed six civilians in an airstrike near the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo. Belgium had summoned the Russian ambassador to Brussels on Wednesday to protest the charges which it dismissed as \"totally groundless and unsubstantiated.\" A defence ministry statement […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-30144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n