Pentagon: Russia and the US use 3 telephone lines for communication in Syria
The Russian Armed Forces and coalitions led by the United States now support three direct telephone lines to prevent incidents between them in Syria. This was announced at a briefing on Thursday by US Colonel Ryan Dillon, the Spokesman for the Combined Joint Task Force of Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR), which is being conducted in Iraq and Syria by a coalition of countries led by the United States.
According to Dillon, he is referring to lines between the commander of the Russian military contingent in Syria and the US chief of staff of Operation Inherent Resolve, as well as a connection for coordinating the air and ground operations of the parties. "The ground components have a line to talk with one another. The air components have a line to talk with one another. And the commanders -- General Funk [commanding general of the Operation] has a line to talk with his counterpart, the Russian counterpart, in Syria" Dillon said.
Until now, only one line of telephone communication between the Russian and American armed forces had been publicly spoken about, which had been established to prevent various incidents between the two countries in Syria. This line connected the airbase of the Russian military intelligence center at Khmeimim air base in Syria and the US Al-Udeid military air base, located near the Qatari capital. This facility near Doha is the largest US Air Force base in the Middle East. Since 2016, the base has been used for Operation Inherent Resolve, which is directed against the Islamic State (IS). The Islamic State is banned in Russia, and based in Iraq and Syria.