Secretary of Defense Ash Carter answers questions from troops during am Oct. 6 troop event in Sigonella, Italy.(Photo: U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Clydell Kinchen/DoD)
Carter: Russian Attacks on Syrian Rebels 'Tragically Flawed'
ROME — US Defense Secretary Ash Carter called Russia’s bombing of Syrian rebels not affiliated to the Islamic State, “tragically flawed,” but said he still wanted technical talks with Moscow to ensure the safety of US pilots flying over Syria.
“We believe that Russia has the wrong strategy. They continue to hit targets that are not ISIL. We believe this is a fundamental mistake,” Carter said Wednesday during a visit to Rome.
“We are not prepared to cooperate in a strategy which is tragically flawed, and that is why I said the United States is not collaborating with Russia,” he said.
Russia launched air raids in Syria last month claiming it would target ISIS but has allegedly hit rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad, some of whom are backed by the US. Russia considers Assad a strategic ally, while Western powers want to see him step down.
Carter said he was pushing for basic, technical discussions with Russia on how to coordinate between Russian jets flying in Syria and US jets hitting ISIS targets.
“What we are obligated to do is to agree on professional air safety procedures to protect our air crews,” he said.
Talks would cover safe flying distances and common radio frequencies for distress calls.
“What we will do is continue basic, technical discussions on professional safety procedures, for our pilots flying in Syria,” Carter said. “That’s it. We will keep a channel open because it is a matter of security for our pilots,” he added.
But Russia had yet to respond, he said. “We have not heard back from them. We are awaiting a formal response,” he said.
That contrasted with claims made on Tuesday by Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov that Russia had agreed with US proposals on flight safety.
Russia has ground troop battalion, advanced tanks in Syria: U.S. NATO envoy| Reuters
Wed Oct 7, 2015 11:11am EDT
Russia's military build-up in Syria includes a "considerable and growing" naval presence, long-range rockets and a battalion of ground troops backed by Moscow's most modern tanks, the U.S. ambassador to NATO said on Wednesday.
Speaking on the eve of a NATO defense ministers meeting to be dominated by Russia's intervention in Syria's civil war, U.S. Ambassador to NATO Douglas Lute said Moscow had managed a "quite impressive" military deployment over the past week to its Syria naval base in Tartous and its army base in Latakia.
"There is a considerable and growing Russia naval presence in the eastern Mediterranean, more than 10 ships now, which is a bit out of the ordinary," he told a news briefing.
"The recent Russian reinforcements over the last week or so feature a battalion-size ground force ... There is artillery, there are long-range rocket capabilities, there are air defense capabilities," Lute said.
A battalion is typically around 1,000 soldiers.
Western officials say that in strategic terms, Russia's new air strike campaign in Syria appears designed to help reverse rebel gains increasingly endangering Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, protect Russian military assets in the country including its sole Mediterranean port, and reassert Moscow’s place as a big international power competing with the United States.
"The force that they have deployed down there is actually quite impressive for a rapid deployment of a week or so," Lute said. "(It is) all arms, combined arms, attack aircraft, it is the attack helicopters and artillery, rocket artillery."
Russia's ground forces in Syria include some of its most advanced tanks, he added.
A U.S.-led coalition has been waging air strikes against Islamic State militants, Syria's most powerful insurgent force, since last year but NATO is not directly involved.
However, Russian air space violations of NATO-ally Turkey near the border with Syria at the weekend have brought the crisis right up to the alliance's borders. NATO called the incursions "unacceptable" and dismissed Russia's explanation that they were a mistake caused by bad weather.
Russia's air campaign in Syria, at a time when relations with the West are at a post-Cold War low over Ukraine, has caught Washington and its allies on the back foot and risks an incident between Russian and U.S. warplanes, now operating in the same country for the first time since World War Two.
On Wednesday, Russian and Syrian forces carried out what appeared to be the first major coordinated ground assaults on Syrian insurgents, targeting rebels in the west rather than Islamic State militants, a monitor said.
Russia says it shares the West's aim of preventing the spread of Islamic State who have seized large expanses of Syria. But fighters on the ground and Western nations have said Russian warplanes have targeted mainly rebels who have seized areas in western Syria, and is aimed more at shoring up Assad rather than routing Islamist militants predominating to the north and east.
(Reporting by Robin Emmott)
A still image from a October 6, 2015 footage shows a Russian air force helicopter on the tarmac of Heymim air base near the Syrian port town of Latakia.
Reuters/RURTR via Reuters
A still image taken from a October 6, 2015 footage, shows a technician servicing a Russian air force helicopter at Heymim air base near the Syrian port town of Latakia.
Reuters/RURTR via Reuters
Russian warplanes in Syria destroy U.S.-trained rebels' weapons depots: commander| Reuters
Russian air strikes have destroyed the main weapons depots of a U.S.-trained rebel group in Syria, their commander said on Wednesday, in an expansion of Russian attacks on insurgents backed by foreign enemies of President Bashar al-Assad.
The Liwa Suqour al-Jabal, whose fighters have attended military training organized by the Central Intelligence Agency in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, was also hit last week by Russian raids as Moscow began its air campaign in support of Damascus.
New strikes targeted the group's main weapons depots in western Aleppo province and completely destroyed them late on Tuesday, its commander Hassan Haj Ali told Reuters on Wednesday via an Internet messaging service.
Haj Ali said he believed the Russians were targeting his group because it was one of the bigger and stronger factions fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army with support from "Arab and foreign countries".
"These were considered the principal depots of the Liwa," he told Reuters.
Liwa Suqour al-Jabal operates areas of western and northern Syria where many of Russia's air strikes have been focused and where the Islamic State group - the stated target of the Russian air raids - has no significant presence.
It is one of a number of Syrian rebel groups deemed moderate by the United States which have received training as part of an ostensibly covert CIA program. That program is separate to one set up by the Pentagon to train and equip Syrian insurgents to fight Islamic State.
The group has been supplied with guided anti-tank missiles by states that oppose Assad. These missiles have had a significant impact on the battlefield.
Liwa Suqour al-Jabal has also been battling attempts by Islamic State to advance in areas north of Aleppo near the Turkish border. Haj Ali said Islamic State had also attacked the group on Tuesday, setting off a car bomb at one of its bases.
Liwa Suqour al-Jabal was targeted last week in Russian strikes.
(Reporting by Dasha Afanasieva/John Davison/Tom Perry, editing by Peter Millership and
Philippa Fletcher)
