The Pentagon decided to move American aircraft in Syria after the promise of the Russian Ministry of Defense to send air defense systems to them

The Pentagon decided to change the disposition of American combat aircraft in Syria after the Russian Ministry of Defense promised to take aviation and drones of the international coalition to support the air defense systems of the Russian Federation. The incident with a Syrian Air Force plane shot down by an American fighter-bomber prompted Moscow with such a step.

According to the US Army Colonel Ryan Dillon, American fighters will continue to support the Syrian opposition in the fight against terrorists, however, "in connection with the latest incidents related to government forces and Russian armed forces, we took measures to move our aircraft in Syria" (quote for Bloomberg ).

He emphasized that the coalition aircraft will continue operations against terrorist groups, and the mentioned measures were necessary to ensure the safety of American pilots, "taking into account the well -known threats." Bloomberg notes that in this way the United States hopes to resolve the conflict situation with Russia.

In addition, despite Russia's statement about the breakdown of contact with the US military in Syria, the Pentagon is ready to continue to use the hotline. According to the representative of the coalition, the United States is ready to further maintain contacts with Russian colleagues with the help of the hotline of the Al-Udeid in Qatar and the Russian air base in Latakia. A spare type of communication may be a correspondence through an “unexpected account in Gmail”, writes RBC with reference to The New York Times .

"The coalition is always ready to reduce the voltage against Russia to ensure the safety of our flight crews and operations," Dillon said (quote on The International News , since the passage of the text was removed from the NYT article).

The incident with a Syrian military aircraft occurred last Sunday. According to Damascus, the aircraft was shot down south of the city of Rakka during an operation against the militants of the Islamic State terrorist group*. The command of the Syrian Armed Forces called the incident "outright aggressive action", and also accused the United States of coordination with the militants.

The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation specified that the Syrian plane was shot down by the American F18A fighter Air - Air. The Council of the Federation of the Russian Federation called the incident with a knocked down Syrian aircraft unacceptable and capable of provoking a large conflict.

The Russian military stated that they stop interaction with the Pentagon as part of the bilateral memorandum on the SAR. Also, the Ministry of Defense added that in connection with the incident "in the areas of the combat missions to Russian aviation in the sky of Syria, any air objects, including airplanes and unmanned vehicles of the international coalition, discovered west of the Euphrates River, will be accepted to support Russian ground and air air defense air targets."