Russia 'perplexed' by Belgian denial of Aleppo airstrike responsibility

Russia claimed on Friday to be "perplexed" by Belgium's denial of responsibility for airstrikes in Aleppo province that Moscow says killed civilians earlier this week.

A tweet posted on the Russian Foreign Ministry's Twitter account early on Friday stated that Moscow remained "perplexed" by "Belgium's persistent denial of the fact that on October 18 the Royal Belgian Air Force struck Aleppo suburbs."

The tweet was posted shortly after a spokesperson from Russia's Foreign Ministry told AFP that Belgium's ambassador to the country had been summoned to Moscow early on Friday in a sign of escalating tensions between the two European states.

On Wednesday, Russia said that six people had been killed and a further four injured in airstrikes in Hassajek, in Aleppo province, claiming that two Belgian F-16 planes were present in the area.

Since, a spokesman from Russia's Defence Ministry has also claimed that Moscow has "effective air defence capabilities, allowing it to carry out 24-hour monitoring of air activity practically over the whole territory of Syria and beyond its limits".

But Belgium has denied responsibility, claiming that a map with a flight path on it provided by Moscow showed the aircraft in question did not belong to Belgium, and on Wednesday summoned the Russian ambassador to Brussels in protest.

Belgium began airstrikes against the Islamic State group in Syria in March, having previously participated in aerial missions against the extremist group in Iraq, as part of a US-led coalition currently fighting against the group.

Russia has been accused of war crimes for its involvement in a devastating campaign of airstrikes in east Aleppo that has seen 500 people killed since a US-Russian brokered ceasefire collapsed on September 19.