MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The ministry earlier confirmed that Daesh second-in-command Abu Mohammed Adnani was among about 40 terrorists killed in an airstrike by Russian Su-34 fighter-bombers in the Syrian province of Aleppo.
However, some anonymous Pentagon sources ridiculed the report in an interview with Reuters, calling it "a joke."
"It is not surprising that Pentagon does not have any concrete information about the Russian strike on August 30 as the US officials have been claiming almost every day for about a year that they rule out any coordination of military operations in Syria with Russia," Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said.
"How can they be aware of this data [on the strike], then?" Konashenkov said.
"Therefore, the remarks by Pentagon anonymous sources calling the Russian strike on Adnani "a joke" is the only way for them [the US military] to find an excuse for their ignorance," he stressed.