Russia says agrees with US to improve military coordination in Syria

Moscow, June 19: Russia said on Sunday it had reached an agreement with the US to improve coordination between their military operations in Syria, where they are backing opposing sides of a civil war and launching air strikes.

Russia’s defence ministry said it was pushing Washington to help produce a shared map of the positions of fighting forces to avoid incidents, a day after Washington accused Moscow of attacking US-backed insurgents there.

Moscow’s intervention on the side of President Bashar al-Assad, alongside Western backing for rebel groups opposing him, has raised fears of awiderinternationalconfrontation in the war.

Russia’s defence ministry said military officials from both countries had agreed on the need to improve coordination during a video conference. There was no immediate confirmation from Washington.

“The exchange of views about the incident was carried out in a constructive way with the both sides aiming to improve the coordination on fighting the terrorist organisations in Syria and in order to avert any incidents during military operations in this country,” Russian Defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a statement.

The Pentagon said on Saturday it had questioned Moscow over Russian air strikes conducted against US-backed Syrian opposition forces last week, accusing Moscow of failing to heed US war nings.

Konashenkov dismissed the allegation, saying the Russian strikes hit about 300 km (190 miles) away from territory where the United States had said opposition forces were operating.

Reuters