USA and Russian military officials have signed a memorandum of understanding that includes steps their pilots should take to avoid an inadvertent clash over Syria as they carry out separate air strikes against armed groups, the Pentagon said.
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“We are not prepared to cooperate in a strategy which as we explained is flawed, tragically flawed, on Russia’s part”, said Defense Secretary Ash Carter earlier this month.
These groups, often led by officers who defected from the Syrian army after the uprising against President Assad erupted in 2011, have been widely eclipsed by Islamist groups such as the Nusra Front and Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
The arrangement “does nothing to assuage our concerns about Russian military activities in Syria”, State Department spokesman John Kirby said.
“We enjoy coordination with Syria and Russian Federation in the fight against Daesh”, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the Iranian deputy foreign minister for Arab and African affairs, said at the European Council on Foreign Relations in London on Tuesday.
The Russian Foreign Ministry says over the previous 24 hours it conducted 55 combat sorties against 60 targets in the Hama, Idlib, Damascus, Aleppo, Deir ez-Zor and Latakia provinces.
“Our air crews continue to fly in a professional fashion, and this agreement, now – this understanding – obligates the Russians to do the same, and we again, call on them to abide by the protocols that they have now agreed to”, Cook said.
Moscow had proposed a number of specific measures to deepen Russian-US military cooperation to counter the threat from global terrorism, the statement said.
Moreover, the ministry dismissed media reports that Russian soldiers were killed in Syria’s coastal city of Latakia.
“People urgently need food and basic household and shelter items”.
The division commanded by the late Basil Zimmo had been equipped with TOW anti-tank missiles by the United States, according to the BBC, which adds that another Free Syrian Army-aligned commander was killed in a ground engagement with regime forces near Aleppo on Monday.
The head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights which monitors the conflict, Rami Abdulrahman, said his sources in the area had confirmed the deaths of Russians, but said the men were believed to have been volunteers, not regular military servicemen, Reuters reported.
Russia’s air strike campaign in Syria has killed 370 people, one third of them civilians, since it started three weeks ago, the Observatory said on Tuesday.
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While a few militant and government opposition groups in Iraq fear they could be targeted alongside the Islamic State militant group, also known as ISIS, Rubaie said that opposition to the idea would not affect the vote.
