WW3 Guts Test @ Syria. Obama vs Putin

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http://www.nationalpost.com/m/wp/blo...re-by-russians

Pentagon considering using force to protect U.S.-trained rebels in Syria if they come under fire by Russians

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Lolita C. Baldor And Robert Burns, The Associated Press
Friday, Oct. 2, 2015


Russian footage of a Syrian bomb explosion made available on October 2. Pentagon officials urged the Russian military on Thursday to focus its airstrikes in Syria on Islamic State fighters rather than opponents of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP

WASHINGTON — Russia’s launch of airstrikes in Syria is prompting discussions within the Pentagon about whether the U.S. should use military force to protect U.S.-trained and equipped Syrian rebels if they come under fire by the Russians.

U.S. officials said Thursday that senior military leaders and defence officials are working through the thorny legal and foreign policy issues and are weighing the risks of using force in response to a Russian attack.

Defence Secretary Ash Carter declined to discuss the problem when asked about it this week. But U.S. officials acknowledged that this is one of the questions being asked as they debate the broader dilemma of how the administration should respond to what White House press secretary Josh Earnest described as Russia’s “indiscriminate military operations against the Syrian opposition.”

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss ongoing deliberations publicly.

Tensions between the United States and Russia are escalating over Russian airstrikes that apparently are serving to strengthen Syrian President Bashar Assad by targeting rebels — perhaps including some aligned with the U.S. — rather than hitting Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant fighters it promised to attack.

The Pentagon on Thursday had its first conversation with Russian officials in an effort to avoid any unintended U.S.-Russian confrontations as the airstrikes continue in the skies over Syria. During the video call, Elissa Slotkin, who represented the U.S. side, expressed America’s concerns that Russia is targeting areas where there are few if any Islamic State forces operating. Slotkin is the acting assistant secretary of defence for international security affairs.


A key concern is the prospect of the United States and Russia getting drawn into a shooting war in the event that Russian warplanes hit moderate Syrian rebels who have been trained and equipped by the U.S. military.
At U.N. headquarters in New York, Secretary of State John Kerry said: “What is important is Russia has to not be engaged in any activities against anybody but ISIL. That’s clear. We have made that very clear.”

“We are not yet where we need to be to guarantee the safety and security” of those carrying out the airstrikes, he said.

In an interview late Thursday on CBS’s “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” Kerry described the military consultations as “a way of making sure that planes aren’t going to be shooting at each other and making things worse.”

Kerry said Russia should help the United States “persuade Assad to be the saver of his country, not the killer of his country.”

U.S. officials made it clear earlier this year that rebels trained by the U.S. would receive air support in the event they are attacked by either ISIL or Syrian government troops. Currently, only about 80 U.S.-trained Syrian rebels are back in Syria fighting with their units.


Hadi Al-Abdallah via APsmoke rises after airstrikes in Kafr Nabel of the Idlib province, western Syria, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2015.
The U.S. policy is very specific. It doesn’t address a potential attack by Russian planes and does not include Syrian rebels who have not been through the U.S. military training, even though they may be aligned with the U.S. or fighting Islamic State militants.

So far, the Russian airstrikes have been in western Syria. The Syrians trained and equipped by the U.S. have primarily been operating in the north.

U.S. officials said the issue is one of many being hashed out by top leaders within the department and the military’s Joint Staff. One official said they are weighing the potential fallout.

At worst, if Russia bombs rebels trained by the U.S. and American fighter jets intercede to protect the
Syrians, the exchange could trigger an all-out confrontation with Russia — a potential disaster the administration would like to avoid.

Fueling the concerns is the fact that Russia has aircraft in Syria with air-to-air combat capacity, even though ISIL has no air force and the only aircraft in the skies belong to U.S.-led coalition or the Syrian government.

Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook would not provide details of the talks with Russia. But much of the discussion involved proposals for avoiding conflict between U.S. and Russian aircraft flying over Syria.

Kerry said he foresees further consultations with the Russians about air operations. And Cook said the U.S. side proposed using specific international radio frequencies for distress calls by military pilots flying in Syrian airspace, but he was not more specific about that or other proposals.

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