U.S., Russian officials tackle technical details of Syrian strikes

JUDY WOODRUFF:

Russia continued airstrikes throughout Western Syria today, targeting what it said were Islamic State and other terrorist targets.

Meantime, the United States continued its campaign in Syria's skies, and began talks to lessen the chances of further conflict, in what is becoming a crowded airspace.

Chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Warner begins our coverage.

MARGARET WARNER:

This was just east of Damascus today, moments after an apparent Russian airstrike on the village of Deir al-Asafir. It was one of the sites across Western Syria that was hit on day two of the Russian bombardment.

There were more strikes to the north, near Turkey, in Idlib province, where al-Qaida's Syrian branch, the al-Nusra Front, is dominant. And in Homs, a building housing displaced Syrians was struck.

MAN (through interpreter):

We were sitting here on the steps, and suddenly we heard a noise and the rocket fell here. Once it fell, children were on the floor. It was a mess.

MARGARET WARNER:

That desperate scene found its exact opposite in the relative calm of a marketplace in old Damascus, under firm control of the Bashar al-Assad regime.

VARYJ GERUN JIAN, Damascus Resident (through interpreter):

This is a very positive step, and Russia became the best solution for the crisis that we are living in.

MARGARET WARNER:

As Russian military video showed strikes across the country, a colonel speaking from Syria maintained they targeted the Islamic State.

COL. IGOR KLIMOV, Russian Army (through interpreter):

The Russian aviation group carried out the first precision strikes on eight sites of the international terrorist organization Islamic State. All targets have been destroyed.

MARGARET WARNER:

But one rebel group backed by the CIA said its fighters had been hit. And at a special Pentagon briefing, Colonel Steve Warren, speaking from Baghdad, dismissed the Russians' claims.

COL. STEVE WARREN, U.S. Army:

Well, what I'll tell you is, the Russians were very clear publicly that they were going to strike ISIL. I'm not going to get into exactly who they hit, but we don't believe that they struck ISIL targets. So, that's a problem. Right? I mean, the Russians have said that they are going to do one thing, and here they are doing something different than that.

SERGEI LAVROV, Foreign Minister, Russia:

If it looks like a terrorist, if it acts like a terrorist, if it walks like a terrorist, if it fights like a terrorist, it's a terrorist, right?

MARGARET WARNER:

In turn, Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, at the United Nations appeared to acknowledge the attacks are not limited to the Islamic State.

SERGEI LAVROV:

We always were saying that we are going to fight ISIL and other terrorist groups. This is the same — the same position which the Americans are taking. This is basically our position as well. We see eye to eye with the coalition on this one.

MARGARET WARNER:

In fact, Russian and American military officials spoke by teleconference today for the first time since the Russian airstrikes began, in a bid to deconflict the airspace over Syria.

With both Russian and American fighter jets active there, a Pentagon spokesman said they need to avoid miscalculation. And amid the focus on the air war, Reuters reported Iran has now sent ground troops into Syria to bolster Assad.

Meanwhile, Moscow said it would consider airstrikes in Iraq as well.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told the NewsHour Wednesday that he'd welcome Russian involvement, if needed, to beat back the Islamic State.

JUDY WOODRUFF:

And Margaret joins me now.

Margaret, you have been reporting on this all day long. What have you learned about what happened during this teleconference between U.S. and Russian officials?

MARGARET WARNER:

Well, I think the most important thing, Judy, this went about an hour. The two teams were, as I said, by teleconference led by someone from the Defense Department and someone from the Joint Chiefs and their counterparts on the other side, but that it was highly technical.

And they described it as cordial, professional, but highly technical. And I mean issues as tiny — focused on pilot safety. So, for example, if one aircraft spots another, a Russian and American, how do they communicate? Who talks first? What language do they use? What frequency do they use? I mean, it was really technical stuff like that.

The U.S. did make its case about, you should be focusing on ISIS targets, not on, you know, moderates or whatever, but there was no response on that level. It was really, really technical. And when — each side presented proposals to the other and they agreed they would go consult their bosses and hopefully talk again.

JUDY WOODRUFF:

So, we keep hearing this term deconfliction. What does that really mean?

MARGARET WARNER:

I was told by one retired general today that that's not even really a military term.

On its simplest level, it means, obviously, how do you prevent an accidental confrontation? So, it would be issues such as what they were discussing today. But at a deeper level, deconfliction means, how do we — let's say we have an agreement that you bomb your bad guys, we bomb our bad guys, we're not under one command, but there is something cooperative there and we have a channel of communication?

The problem in Syria is — and there have been cases like that — the problem in Syria is that if on the list of the Russian bad guys, that is, are moderate opposition rebels that we have trained and supported or maybe even armed, then what do we do? And that — the talks today didn't get to that level, but that's going to be really the nub of the problem.

JUDY WOODRUFF:

So the U.S. has said, I think, pretty consistently over the last day or so, that they — that the Russians are hitting these moderate anti-Assad rebel groups. How do they know that's happening?

MARGARET WARNER:

That's a very interesting question, Judy, because, at first, it seemed all very clear, but apparently it isn't entirely clear that they were.

It's clear they weren't hitting in areas dominated by the Islamic State. This is definitely an area that's been dominated by the so-called Free Syrian Army and the moderate rebels. But we had an interesting text message conversation today by an activist outside the city of Homs, who said that actually today it was mostly civilians that were killed.

And he gave terrible, terrible stories of hitting a bread line with all these people killed. Some of it, we put in our piece, but…

JUDY WOODRUFF:

Yes.

MARGARET WARNER:

… that in fact — and so, when the Pentagon is being careful, they say, look, we can't do damage assessment on the ground. We don't have eyes and ears on the ground. And that's why they're being careful in saying that the targets were the moderate opposition.

But it clearly wasn't ISIS.

JUDY WOODRUFF:

Very — in just a matter of a few seconds, what do you look for next?

MARGARET WARNER:

I'm told that, in fact, there are going to be another round of talks — that was late today — and that, in the meantime, I think it's going to get more dangerous out there, if the Russians keep up this pace of bombing.

JUDY WOODRUFF:

Grim.

Margaret Warner, we thank you.