US, Russian Federation make progress on ‘safe flight zone’ over Syria

Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook disclosed few details, except to say that the discussions took place between United States defence officials and their counterparts in Moscow and focused on “steps that can be taken” by Russian and US-led coalition aircraft “to promote safe flight operations over Syria”.

Russia’s entry into Syria’s civil war has complicated America’s more than year-old campaign of air strikes against Islamic State.

The aim, Cook said, is to work with these unspecified units “so that over time they can make a concerted push into territory still controlled by ISIL”, using an acronym for the Islamic State. Others said the hope is to put much more pressure on the northern city of Raqqa, the Islamic State’s declared capital.

But after the news conference, a senior defence official said Carter had misspoken, and President Barack Obama would not be speaking.

The overhaul keeps the effort in line with the administration’s basic formula of leveraging US airpower to enhance the efforts of Syrian rebels on the ground.

The area is held by a rebel alliance that excludes ISIS fighters. The USA had been waiting since then for a response. “Adjusting one program, even if it were successful, will not solve the problem”.

The U.S. defence secretary, Ash Carter, said Russian aircraft came within miles of a USA drone and criticised Russia for launching cruise missile strikes without warning.

Instead of fighting ISIS in small units, the U.S.-trained rebels would be attached to larger existing Kurdish and Arab forces.

President Vladimir Putin – who has infuriated Assad’s enemies in the United States, Europe, Turkey and the Arab world by bombing the rebels to protect him – reached out to one of the Syrian leader’s fiercest opponents by meeting the powerful defence minister of Saudi Arabia.

“I remain convinced that a lasting defeat of ISIL in Syria will depend in part on the success of local, motivated, and capable ground forces”, Carter said in a written statement.

A second class yielded only a small number of new fighters, drawing criticism from US lawmakers who condemned the program as a joke and a failure.

“We will monitor the progress these groups make and provide them with air support as they take the fight to ISIL”, he said.

Additionally, instead of vetting individuals, which has slowed down the planned training of 5,400 rebels, the process will be streamlined a year into the program to vet just the leaders of these groups, the official said.

They would be equipped with US communications gear and trained to provide intelligence and to designate Islamic State targets for airstrikes in coordination with USA troops outside of Syria, the officials said.

Human Rights Watch meanwhile said that an advanced type of Russian cluster munition was used in an airstrike southwest of Aleppo on October. 4, as part of what photographs and videos suggest is renewed use of the air-dropped and ground-fired munitions. The group said the rebels shelled troops in the newly seized territory.

The budgeted 0 million for the program remains, he added, but the focus of the training program will shift. As of May, $41.8 million had been spent, according to the Pentagon’s latest public accounting. The official said the training was “to be suspended, with the option to restart if conditions dictate, opportunities arise”.