WASHINGTON \u2014 The U.S. is talking multiple times a day with Russia to deconflict ground and air operations in Syria, according to Gen. Stephen Townsend, commander of the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fight for Raqqa, the Islamic State\u2019s de facto capital continues, but with the liberation of Mosul, Iraq, and the stunningly swift defeat of the militants in Tal Afar, the next stepping stone in the battle against ISIS will be the middle Euphrates River valley, from Deir ez-Zor, about 80 miles southeast of Raqqa, to the Iraqi border. Thousands of ISIS fighters have entrenched themselves there, fleeing from the coalition onslaught.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe last stand of ISIS will be in the MERV,\u201d said Townsend, referring to the valley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The battlespace along the Euphrates River is tightly congested and \u201cfraught with friction\u201d between competing forces, Townsend said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Syrian regime forces backed by Russia, and various regime-supported proxies, are operating just south of Tabqa, the site of a large dam along the Euphrates about 20 miles west of Raqqa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are trying to deconflict this,\u201d Townsend said during a televised Pentagon press briefing Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russia and the coalition have agreed to some deconfliction lines in the middle Euphrates River valley,\u201d Townsend said, but he added that \u201cnot all of it yet\u201d has been decided.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Previously, the communication hotline between the coalition and Russia was largely devoted to air deconfliction, to help avoid midair collisions in the congested airspace over Syria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, during recent campaigns to liberate the cities of al-Bab and Tabqa, in which unfriendly forces converged, it became clear that there needed to be a ground component to the deconfliction hotline with Russia, Townsend said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt gets tougher [to communicate] with a force that isn\u2019t friendly but not necessarily an adversary,\u201d Townsend explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThose rehearsals have allowed us to come up with measures that seem to work,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were able to work through that then.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Between air and ground deconfliction, \u201csomeone is talking to the Russians multiple times a day,\u201d Townsend said. \u201cIt\u2019s a fact of life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The U.S. is talking multiple times a day with Russia to deconflict ground and air operations in Syria.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":89206,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":8,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,8,12,26],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3399],"class_list":["post-50025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-flashpoints","category-news","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"7T2LMBRREREO5ISVLPQPTQIZPI","arc_canonical_url":"\/flashpoints\/2017\/08\/31\/us-talks-to-russia-daily-as-isis-battle-begins-shift-to-euphrates-river-valley\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n