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US: Airstrikes not coordinated with Syria

Iran Press TV

Tue Sep 23, 2014 7:3PM GMT

The United States has not coordinated airstrikes against the ISIL terrorist group in Syria with Damascus, the State Department says.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki in Washington said on Tuesday that Washington informed the Syrian government in advance of airstrikes, but there was no strategic coordination with Damascus.

"We warned Syria not to engage US aircraft," said Psaki. "We did not request the regime's [sic] permission. We did not coordinate our actions with the Syrian government."

In a separate statement issued earlier in the day, the United States Department of Defense said that there was no "military-to-military" communication with Syria.

Army Lt. Gen. William C. Mayville Jr., the Pentagon's director for operations, claimed that Syrian military radar was "passive" during the US-led airstrikes.

According to the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, some 120 militants from both ISIL and al-Qaeda were killed in the airstrikes carried out by the US military and its "partner nation forces" against targets inside the Syrian territory.

The group said that at least 11 civilians, including four children, were also killed in the airstrikes in the northern province of Aleppo.

Meanwhile, Iraq said dozens of militants have been killed in the US-led airstrikes in the country's west near the border with Syria.

Fighter aircraft from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates took part in the airstrikes.

The aerial attacks also targeted areas in the east of Syria. Positions held by terrorists from the al-Nusra Front and the ISIL were reportedly targeted.

On Monday night, Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said that the US military and "partner nation forces are undertaking military action against…terrorists in Syria using a mix of fighter, bomber and Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles."

Damascus says any strikes by foreign forces against militant strongholds in Syria must be carried out with the approval of the Syrian government.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry said in a statement released early on Tuesday that Washington had informed Syria's permanent ambassador to the United Nations that airstrikes would be launched against the ISIL terrorists in Syria.

GJH/GJH