U.S. and Russian militaries are actively exchanging information about skies over Syria
The commander of U.S. air operations in the Middle East said that the United States and Russia are now more actively exchanging information through an established “hotline,” as the airspace over the territory controlled by ISIS is becoming more crowded.
“We had to increase the amount of work to eliminate conflict situations, which we are doing together with the Russians, given the limited airspace in which we are now operating,” U.S. Air Force Lieutenant General Jeffrey Harrigan told the media on Wednesday.
A few months ago, a hotline was established between Russia and the United States to avoid possible incidents and misunderstandings in the sky over Syria. Currently, the number of insurgents from ISIS in Iraq and Syria has decreased from a peak of 30 thousand to 15 thousand.
Harrigan confirmed that the US had established “security zones” around areas where U.S. military personnel are located and limited the movement of Russian forces in these areas, but only to protect U.S. personnel and U.S.-backed insurgents.
“There was a time when we had to work through mitigation strategies so that we could continue our mission, and at times just the opposite,” he said. “The Russian understand what we are trying to do.”
Harrigan added that communication using the hotline is not always easy. Sometimes it takes several separate communications to solve a particular problem.
A recent example of this kind of communication was observed last week when the U.S. conducted what Pentagon chief Jim Mattis called a strike for “self-defense” purposes. The air strike was directed at Syrian pro-government formations, which Iran supports.
These formations violated the security zone, an established 55-kilometer radius around the al-Tanf military base, where personnel of the U.S.-led international coalition trained insurgents who are fighting ISIS.
When Syrian pro-government forces took up combat positions near the base, representatives of the U.S. military command used the hotline to communicate with the Russians to see if they could force the militants to leave the territory.