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Article snippet: The United States used its de-confliction phone line with Russia prior to Friday’s airstrikes in Syria, but did not tell the Russians what the United States was targeting, the U.S. military’s top general said Friday night. “We specifically identified these targets to mitigate the risk of Russian forces being involved, and we used our normal de-confliction channels -- those were active this week -- to work through the airspace issues and so forth,” Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford said at a Pentagon briefing. “We did not do any coordination with the Russians on the strikes, nor did we pre-notify them.” Dunford was speaking alongside Defense Secretary he ordered airstrikes against targets associated with Syria’s chemical weapons production. The operation, done in coordination with U.S. allies Britain and France, was ordered in response to a chemical weapons attack last weekend that the United States and allies have blamed on Syrian President Bashar Assad. Trump had sent a tweet on Wednesday warning Russia to "get ready" for missiles headed toward its ally Syria and had spent days deciding on the exact response with France and the U.K. before the strikes took place on Friday. Dunford’s comments Friday contrast with how the United States handled last year’s cruise missile strikes on a Syrian airbase. In that case, the United States used the de-confliction line to notify Moscow in advance. Russia and the United States set up the so-called de-confliction line... Link to the full article to read more