The Pentagon has asked Russia to stay away from parts of northern Syria where US special operations forces are training local fighters to combat the Islamic State group, military officials said on Thursday.
The acknowledgement Russia knows approximately where the highly covert US commandos are based is significant because the Pentagon has repeatedly stressed it is not cooperating with Moscow as the two powers lead separate air campaigns in war-ravaged Syria.
The Pentagon last year said it was sending about 50 special ops troops to work with anti-IS fighters in Syria, though officials have said next to nothing about their whereabouts or progress since, and have worked hard to ensure no information about the commandos’ presence is released, citing security reasons.
READ MORE: Obama does ‘not foresee’ US troops in Syria
Lieutenant General Charles Brown, who leads the US air forces in the Middle East, said US officials had asked Moscow to avoid “broad areas” in northern Syria “to maintain a level of safety for our forces that are on the ground”.
He added that Moscow had itself asked the US-led coalition to avoid some of the airfields the Russian military is using.
“They don’t want us flying close to [these areas],” Brown said. “Typically, we don’t fly there anyway. So, that hasn’t been an issue.”
