Pentagon diverts own jets to avoid Russian jets in Syria

The Pentagon confirmed on Wednesday the U.S. military had to divert at least one U.S. aircraft over Syria to avoid colliding with Russian planes.

There had been at least one close call between a Russian aircraft and a U.S. aircraft over Syria since Russia started its own airstrikes in Syria last week, Pentagon spokesman Jeff Davis said at a briefing, without giving further details.

Russia began airstrikes in Syria on Sept. 30 after weeks of military buildup inside the Arab country which was scrambling to deal with a civil war and insurgency of the Islamic State group.

A day after Russia started its airstrikes in Syria, defense officials from both countries conducted their first round of talks which were focused on "mechanism for the conduct of safe air operations over Syria," according to a Pentagon statement.

However, dangers of an air accident between the two militaries had grown as talks stalled after the United States complained about Russian airplanes' violation of the airspace of neighboring Turkey.

Davis on Wednesday insisted that U.S. airstrikes in Syria were not affected by Russian ones.

"We have taken some actions to ensure the safe separation of aircraft, but we do continue to fly missions over Iraq and Syria in support of this mission to degrade and destroy (the Islamic State)," said Davis.
 Xinhua - china.org.cn - globaltimes.cn
8/10/15
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