A Russian general told U.S. officials to quit flying over Syria just before Moscow’s air force dropped bombs.
A Russian general asked the U.S. to remove its planes from Syrian airspace Wednesday, just hours before Russian airstrikes began there.
The Russian three-star general, who was part of the newly formed intelligence cell with Iraq, Iran, and the Syrian government, arrived in Baghdad at 9 a.m. local time and informed U.S. officials that Russian strikes would be starting imminently—and that the U.S. should refrain from conducting strikes and move any personnel out. The only notice the U.S. received about his visit was a phone call one hour earlier.
The Russian strikes were centered about the city of Homs, according to initial accounts in the local press and in social media. That's significant, because Homs is not known to be an ISIS stronghold.
The Local Coordination Committees of Syria, opposition-linked on-the-ground monitors of the conflict, estimate that 36 people were killed in Homs alone, one of three largely ISIS-free provinces Russia bombed today. The airstrikes targeted five northern suburbs of Homs: Talbiseh, Al Ghantoo, Al Rastan, Al Zafrana and Al Mukarramiyah.
The Western-backed Free Syrian Army told Reuters that it had been bombed by Russian forces.
"The northern countryside of Hama has no presence of ISIS at all and is under the control of the Free Syrian Army," said Major Jamil al-Saleh, whose group has been given anti-tank weapons by the West.
Russia also conducted “multiple strikes” western of the regime-controlled Damascus-Aleppo corridor, a senior defense official told The Daily Beast.
"We have not seen any strikes against ISIL, what we have seen is strikes against Syrian opposition," a U.S. defense official told AFP.
The Russian defense ministry distributed video of today's airstrikes.
Russia Begins 'Surgical Strikes' Targeting ISIS in Syria
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A Russian general told U.S. officials to quit flying over Syria just before Moscow’s air force dropped bombs on Assad enemies other than ISIS.
The Daily Beast's David Axe notes that Russian surface-to-air missiles and at least four Su-30 fighter jets are designed to attack other air forces, namely the U.S., not lightly armed ground forces like rebels or ISIS.
As American officials scrambled to confirm the impact of the strikes, they conceded the operation was a rebuke of talks between President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin about deconfliction.
“This bypasses legitimate discussion,” a senior defense official told The Daily Beast.
Indeed, just yesterday, the Pentagon said it had ordered staff and senior officials to begin such talks. U.S. officials believe there are under 1,000 Russians joined ISIS.
Secretary of State John Kerry told the United Nations on Wednesday that the U.S. would not oppose Russian strikes if they were "genuinely" intended to target ISIS, and he maintained the call for Assad to go. Kerry said ISIS cannot be defeated as long as Assad is in power.
American officials said they would not alter their activities in the region. And a spokesman for the military efforts against ISIS tweeted Wednesday morning that "US and coalition aircraft are currently conducting operations in Syria and Iraq."
But despite the friction between Moscow and Washington—or perhaps, because of it—multiple American officials quietly welcomed Russian involvement in the conflict. As one U.S. officia told The Daily Beast, Putin is stepping into a "quagmire."
“If he wants to jump into that mess, good luck,” the official said, referencing Russia had once before become bogged down fighting Islamic terrorism in Afghanistan.
Sen. John McCain bashed the Obama administration hours after strikes began, saying its "decisions" and "non-decisions" have welcomed Russia into the Middle East in a way "we haven't seen since 1973."