ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—Russia’s Defense Ministry has stressed that the US needs to provide up-to-date data on the locations of anti-Islamic State (ISIS) coalition forces on the ground in Syria, after a report disclosed that the New Syrian Army base the Russians bombed last June was frequented by American and British commandos.
“The responsibility for the troops of the special forces of the anti-ISIS coalition in Syria being at risk of finding themselves in areas targeted by Russia’s Air Force lies solely on their military leadership,” said the Russian Defense Ministry spokesman, Major-General Igor Konashenkov, according to Russia Today.
His comment was in response to a Wall Street Journal report which said that two British troops had left the New Syrian Army garrison near the Jordanian border the day before the Russians bombing.
The US and UK have trained the New Syrian Army fighters in Jordan and sent them into Syria to fight ISIS, they have explicitly said those forces will not be used to fight the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad. On June 16 their garrison was bombed twice by Russian warplanes.
After the first incident US jet fighters flew to the area and radioed the Russians telling them to stop. The Russians withdrew, however after the US jets ran low on fuel and left the area the Russian warplanes returned and bombed the base a second time.
Konashenkov also said he found it ridiculous that the Wall Street Journal article suggested that the Russian pilots should have been able to “guess the presence of Western special forces servicemen among the militants by the blocking sand bags, which are typical for American and British bases, from the height of several kilometers.”
He also offered a solution to avoid such problems in the future, which is “for our partners to move beyond words to joint actions against the international terror groups in Syria.”
The US has already proposed to Syria that they coordinate militarily against a common enemy, the Syrian offshoot of al-Qaeda, Jabhat al-Nusra.
from Rudaw http://ift.tt/2apeAQi
via Defense News
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