ERBIL, Kurdistan Region--The militaries of Russia and the United States held a video conference on Saturday to discuss ways to avoid potential clashes in Syria after Moscow bombed a US-backed rebel group near the Jordanian border last week, an incident that is of serious concern to the Pentagon. The US military expressed to their Russian counterparts during the conference “strong concerns about the attack on the coalition-supported counter-ISIL forces at the Al-Tanaf garrison, which included forces that are participants in the cessation of hostilities in Syria,” confirmed the Pentagon’s spokesman Peter Cook. Speaking after the conference, Major General Igor Konashenkov, spokesperson of the Russian Defense Ministry, said that both the American and Russians agreed that better coordination was needed between the two powers, who are waging two separate air campaigns over the same country. On Thursday, Russian warplanes dropped cluster bombs on members of the New Syrian Army, a group the US and Britain have been training in Jordan to fight Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria, near the al-Tanaf border crossing, reportedly killing two and injuring 18. Russia claimed the US had not provided them with coordinates of the fighters’ location while Washington believes Russia knowingly bombed the group. “Regarding safety, department officials conveyed that Russia’s continued strikes at Al-Tanaf, even after US attempts to inform Russian forces through proper channels of ongoing coalition air support to the counter-ISIL [ISIS] forces, created safety concerns for US and coalition forces,” Cook said. Konashenkov gave a different account in which he denied any wrongdoing on Russia’s part claiming that it “acted within agreed procedures,” throughout the strike and claimed the Americans had not “provided coordinates of the areas occupied by opposition groups under US control.” “The Russian defense authority over several recent months suggested to the US counterparts making a map, which would contain up-to-date information on the location of forces in Syria,” Konashenkov said. “However, no progress has been reached in this matter.” But Konashenkov was optimistic that the two militaries would be able to coordinate more effectively in the future. “The exchange of opinions on the incident was in a constructive manner, where both sides were aimed at better coordination in fighting terrorist organizations in Syria,” he said. The militaries of Russia and the US-led international coalition are backing different groups in Syria but the two nations agreed to a Safety of Flight Memorandum of Understanding in October, which established communication channels between them in order to minimize the risks of incidents between their aircraft.
