Top Russian and US generals discuss Syria bombing allegations: Report

General Valery Gerasimov, the chief of Russia’s general staff, spent an hour on the phone with US Marine General Joseph Dunford discussing Pentagon allegations that Moscow bombed US-backed fighters in Syria, the Kommersant daily said on Sunday.

US-backed militias said they came under attack on Saturday from Russian jets and Syrian government forces in Deir Ezzor province, a flashpoint in an increasingly complex battlefield.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias fighting with the US-led coalition, said six of its fighters were wounded in the strike.

Russia's Defence Ministry on Sunday rejected the allegations, saying its planes only targeted Islamic State (IS) group militants and that it had warned the United States well in advance of its operational plans.

Kommersant, citing unnamed military sources, reported that Gerasimov and Dunford, chairman of the US military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, had spent an hour on Saturday discussing the allegations by phone.

It said Moscow routinely gave the US at least two hours warning of any strikes in Syria and then shared information afterwards about which targets had been struck.

Dunford speaks to reporters

"I spoke with Gerasimov, Secretary Tillerson has spoken to Foreign Minister Lavrov. We have had communications at three different levels," Dunford told reporters as he flew back from a NATO Military Committee meeting in Tirana, Albania.

He said Russian forces were pursuing IS militants who had fled across the Euphrates when their jets struck close enough to injure SDF troops in the area.

"We have been engaged at every level to re-establish deconfliction at the Euphrates river. It couldn't be more complex and crowded in that area, and so deconfliction is more difficult right now than it was a few months ago," Dunford said.

"We haven't resolved all the issues right now. We'll get through that," he added.

Syrian government troops are engaged in an offensive against the provincial capital, Deir Ezzor city, while SDF fighters are battling the IS militants farther east across the Euphrates.

The SDF and Russian-backed Syrian government forces are conducting parallel but separate offensives against IS in Deir Ezzor, the last Syrian province still largely held by the militants.