Russian, United States jets eyeball-to-eyeball over Syria

Ashton Carter said Russian Federation is wrapping itself in a “shroud of isolation” through its actions in Ukraine and Syria, as the two world powers trade blame for escalating tensions.

The US and Russian militaries are finalising a memorandum of understanding that sets out basic air safety procedures in the skies above Syria, a USA official told Reuters following the latest round of bilateral talks on Wednesday.

The Russian military claims to have destroyed “most” of ISIS’s ammunition and heavy weapons after days of intensive air strikes across Syria. “We do not want an accident to take place”, he said.

Warren said that all pilots had “conducted themselves appropriately” but that such proximity between aircraft was unsafe.

“There’s always going to be a few risk if there are uncoordinated actors in the battle space”, he said.

The extremist group, which controls large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria, has been targeted by ferocious Russian bombardments in recent weeks.

In another incident, two shells struck the Russian embassy compound in the Syrian capital Damascus as hundreds of pro-government supporters rallied outside in support for the Russian air strikes on Tuesday. Almost all of its pre-war population has fled, and fighting between the Syrian army and rebel groups has devastated the suburb.

The Syrian Arab Army said it had liberated Kfar Naubudeh and surrounding villages in the west of Hama province. “It was very heavy”, said an eyewitness who gave his name as Yussef.

The official did not elaborate any further on the exact timing other than to say it would happen “soon”.

Though Russian Federation got a “cool” reaction to its proposal for a draft United Nations resolution on forming a coalition against terrorism, progress in settling the crisis in Ukraine ” will remove artificial obstacles in the way of finding common answers to real challenges for all countries”, Lavrov said. “Russian Federation is not joking around; the Americans went [to Syria] and joked around for a year and a half…while America and 40 other countries were there, ISIS expanded [its territory] by 90,000 kilometers”. “We have a clear position”. “This is the Russian Federation”. “Turkey can not accept any cooperation with terrorist organisations which have waged war against it”.