US ‘told Damascus of strikes’ before bombing ISIS in Syria

DAMASCUS — Washington informed Damascus before launching air strikes against the Islamic State in Syria yesterday, though the United States has ruled out direct coordination with Syrian President Bashar Assad in the American-led fight against the Sunni militant group.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry said in a statement yesterday carried by Syrian state media that “the American side informed Syria’s permanent envoy to the United Nations that strikes would be launched against the Daesh terrorist organisation in Raqqa”.

The statement used an Arabic name referring to the Islamic State group, which has seized large chunks of Syrian and Iraqi territory.

Meanwhile, the Syrian government said Washington had informed it hours before the strikes, in a letter from Secretary of State John Kerry sent through his Iraqi counterpart.

However, the US State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki yesterday made clear that the administration had not informed Syria to seek consent or “give any indication of our timing on specific targets”.

The Syrian ministry statement yesterday was Damascus’ first official reaction after the US and five Arab countries launched air strikes on the Islamic State’s targets in Syria late on Monday (yesterday morning, Singapore time), expanding a military campaign into a country whose three-year civil war had given the brutal militant group a safe haven.

In the past, Syrian officials have insisted that any strikes against the Islamic State in the country should come only after coordination with Damascus, or be considered an act of aggression against Syria and a breach of the country’s sovereignty.

US President Barack Obama has repeatedly called on Mr Assad to step down because of chemical-weapon attacks and violence against his people. Unlike Iraq, Syria has not asked America for help against the militant group.

US administration officials have acknowledged that American efforts to roll back the Islamic State in Syria might aid Mr Assad, whose government is also a target of the group.

The air strikes in Syria have come without the benefit of a large ground force to capitalise on gains they make.

US officials have acknowledged that it is doubtful that the Free Syrian Army, the opposition group most preferred by the US, would be able to take control of major sections of Islamic State territory, at least not until it has been better trained — which will take place over the next year. Agencies