'Washington moving from war on terror to regime change in Syria'

The West has a confused policy as it claims it wants to defeat ISIS, but at the same time considers Assad to be an enemy, Middle East affairs expert Ali Rizk told RT.

READ MORE: Syria slams US-led coalition deadly strike against troops as 'act of aggression'

Initial reports said the air strike was carried out on an area with a heavy ISIS presence.

According to Rizk, the possibility that the attack was an accident cannot be completely ruled out.  

“However, at the same time you have to also remember that there has been a lot of anger in some quarters in Washington regarding the Russian role being played. There are many people in Washington that are saying that Russia is outmuscling the US in Syria,” he added.

According to the expert, there have been many calls ”for the Americans to do something, which would maybe reverse the momentum on the ground, which is a result of the rapid intervention.”

Rizk argues that “when we can’t completely rule out the possibility of an accident we also can’t completely rule out the possibility that this was some kind of coordinated attack. A lot of question marks…”

He suggests “we have to wait and see what exactly this location was, which was subject to an airstrike.”

"I don’t believe that this kind of bombing by the American warplanes of the Syrian army position is, actually, an accident. Because the Americans keep telling us, they are very accurate, they choose their targets carefully and they have very smart bombs. So, how it comes that this smartness is not prevailing here.” - Abdel Bari Atwan, writer and political analyst

“Was it an important army base; is it something that will affect the battle on the ground, which has taken place? These are all valid questions",  he continues.

“Once you have a confused policy accidents like this are bound to happen, the Americans, the West in general, have a confused policy saying that they want to defeat ISIS, at the same time they consider Syrian President Bashar Assad to be an enemy as well,” Rizk told RT.

“When you have the US which is not coordinating with the Syrian Army on the ground, contrary to the Russian approach, which does coordinate with the Syria Army, when you have no coordination with the Syrian military on the ground, then these accidents or these incidents are bound to happen.”

Rizk suggests the incident could have been "some kind of deliberate attack by the Americans.”

“I am not saying that is certain, far from it – but maybe there is an American effort to try to thwart the advances made be the Syrian army ever since Russia began with its military operations in Syria,” he said.

Catherine Shakdam, director of programs at the Shafaqna Institute of Middle Eastern Studies in London, thinks that “they [US] are continuing this campaign of trying to demonize the Syrian government and by that President Bashar Al-Assad.”

“It is quite clear that the focus of Washington has moved away from this ‘war on terror’ and back onto regime change in Syria. It is very telling after what happened with the targeting of the Syrian position by the US Army,” she continues.

In her opinion, “it is quite clear that what Washington wants to do in Syria today: they want to use the military to target not terror, but President Bashar Al-Assad…”.