The United States continues to deconflict with Russia in Syria, but Washington is not coordinating its attacks with Moscow there, US Secretary of Defense James Mattis told reporters on Tuesday.
“We are deconflicting with the Russians. We continue to deconflict with the Russians for safety of flight to avoid any kind of misunderstanding or any kind of inadvertent running into each other, frankly, in the air, as we both work against targets in the same vicinity,” Mattis said.
The defense secretary added the United States is not “coordinating our attacks with them [Russia] and integrating them with them.”
After the US missile attack against a Syrian airbase, the Russian Defense Ministry suspended a point-to-point communications link with the US military under the memorandum of understanding on deconfliction in Syria.