United States does not plan to exchange data on Syria with Russia - US general

WASHINGTON, October 2. /TASS/. The Pentagon does not plan - at least at this stage - to exchange with Russia intelligence data on the fight against terrorism in Syria, US Air Force Lt. Gen. Robert Otto, Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR), told a group of journalists. Asked if Washington is ready to organize with Moscow full-fledged operational antiterrorism military cooperation on Syria if Russia voices the proposal, he said: "I would not envision a relationship where I would share some of my intelligence with them." "I'm not saying it couldn't happen, I just don't envision it based on where our interests are and based on what their demonstrated intent, based on where their airstrikes are," Otto said. "I'd be hard-pressed to think of what intelligence I would want to share with the Russians at this point. They are only one day into their strikes but based on where they are operating," he said. "I have a low level of trust in the Russians. It's trust but verify. So it's easy then to exchange factual data /on/ where you are going to operate," Otto said. "Every day at the air operations center the person responsible for air operations - combined force air component commander - produces an air tasking order that becomes - here is what we are going to do today," he said. "It delineates the take-off times, what the bomb-loads will be on airplanes and where they will fly and refuel - all that kind of stuff. What we would share is specifics in an area that butts up against them. Our air tasking order would be comprehensive, I would not expect us to share that, we would share specific elements from the air tasking order," Otto said. "It does take a lot of effort to create an air tasking order [ATO] and put forces in play and we talked about targeting aspect of this. And you want to keep up that tempo. So, if you want to avoid this kind of missteps isn't it handy to know ahead of time - ‘OK, we are going to be operating in this area tomorrow’. That would be helpful to know," he said. "Like yesterday, our forces got, I think, one hour's notice? Two or one hour's notice," Otto said. "That's not deconfliction. That's not something we are going to do." Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mariya Zakharova said Wednesday while answering a question on a report in the internet on people allegedly killed as a result of Russian air strikes in Syria that the scale and speed of information injections into social networks regarding the Russian operation in Syria is surprising. "We have just started the operation, and social networks already publish photos of alleged victims," Zakharova told journalists. "What can I say? We all know perfectly how such pictures are made. The speed with which it all was prepared is surprising." She underscored that all data regarding the operation Russia conducts at the request of official Damascus and in line with international law and Russian legislation will be commented by Russian official bodies, in particular, the Defense Ministry. "That’s why I am calling, including on Western media, to turn to top officials in the Defense Ministry press service to obtain all required information," Zakharova said. The Russian Defense Ministry reported Wednesday that Russian air strikes in Syria destroyed command centers of Islamic State terrorist organization militants. "Today aircraft of Russia’s Aerospace Forces delivered targeted air strikes on eight facilities of the ISIL [former name of Islamic State] terrorist group on the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic. Overall, some 20 sorties were made," Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said. "As a result of air strikes, depots with ammunition, armaments, petroleum, oil and lubricants, accumulations of military hardware were hit. The command control centers of ISIL militant formations in the mountains were completely destroyed," Konashenkov said. He said all strikes were made after air reconnaissance and update of data obtained from the Syrian army headquarters. Aircraft armaments were not used to hit civil infrastructure facilities or areas near them. Read more