Accusations from Western powers are flying after Russia carried out its first airstrikes in Syria Wednesday, but Moscow appears to have been ruffling the US's feathers before the bombs went off.
Reports indicate a Russian official told US Embassy staff in Baghdad early Wednesday that Russia would conduct strikes against Daesh (ISIS) targets in Syria later that day.
How did they do this? According to Reuters, the Russian official told embassy personnel the airstrikes would begin Wednesday and "requested that the US aircraft avoid Syrian airspace" during the missions. Basically, a little like this:
Extraordinary. A 3 star Russian general went to US embassy in Baghdad this am, saying bombing starts in 1 hour, clear #Syria airspace
— Jon Sopel (@BBCJonSopel) September 30, 2015
US State Department spokesman John Kirby confirmed the conversation to the news agency, but would not name the official. Kirby added that the new involvement from Moscow would not change Syrian flight plans from the US coalition, whose strikes have backed Kurdish militias fighting Daesh on the ground in northern Syria and targeted the group's de facto capital Raqqa in the east.
"US-led coalition will continue to fly missions over Iraq and Syria as planned and in support of our international mission to degrade and destroy ISIL," the official said.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter after Wednesday's strikes accused Russia of “pouring gasoline on the fire” in Syria, as it appeared "the strikes were in areas where there were not Isil [Daesh] forces and that is one of the problems with this sort of approach."
