MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Moscow is ready to use any reliable information on terrorist locations in Syria to carry out precision airstrikes, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday.
"In the course of our activities, we are ready to take into account any reliable information on the location of terrorist groups. We have even worked together with the Free Syrian Army (FSA). The Russian aviation has conducted several strikes on the targets identified by the FSA. We excluded areas, which had been indicated by FSA commanders as being under their control," Putin said in an interview with Russian and Turkish media.
Russian jets commenced precision airstrikes against Islamic State in Syria on September 30, following a request from Syrian President Bashar Assad.
A US-led international coalition has been conducting airstrikes against ISIL targets in Syria since 2014 without an approval of the UN Security Council or the Syrian government.
After Russia launched its military operation, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov said Moscow was ready to use the information obtained by the US-led coalition to fight ISIL in Syria, calling on coalition members to exchange intelligence on the militant group.
According to Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, the United States has declined proposals to cooperate with Moscow and Damascus on target data collected by Russian and Syrian intelligence services.
