US, Russia keep near miss incidents in Syria internal to keep "temperature down" - Pentagon

WASHINGTON, Oct 28 (KUNA) -- The US and Russian militaries discuss aircraft near miss incidents over Syria through a "deconfliction channel" to do the "exact opposite of turning it into a major incident," the Pentagon said on Friday.
"The deconfliction channel is not one that's necessarily designed for public disclosure," Operation Inherent Resolve spokesman Col John Dorrian told a briefing after media reports of an incident on October 17.
"It's really more intended to keep the temperature down between us and the Russians in that very crowded and confused, at times, battle space," said Dorrian.
The incident involving a Russian fighter which flew extremely close to a US warplane over eastern Syria was reported by US media on Friday.
Commander of US Air Force Central Command Air Force Lt Gen Jeff Harrigian said the Russian jet came to "inside of half a mile (800m)" from the US aircraft.
He added that the Russian pilot did not see the US jet due to the dark conditions and "not having the necessary situational awareness given all those platforms operating together." Situations like these were occurring "one every 10 days-ish," he added. (end) sd.bs