Syria's Assad says ‘third parties’ inform govt. of IS coalition strikes

PanARMENIAN.Net - Syria's President Bashar al-Assad says his government is receiving messages from the U.S.-led coalition battling the jihadist group, Islamic State.

Assad told the BBC that there had been no direct cooperation since air strikes began in Syria in September. But third parties - among them Iraq - were conveying "information".

He also denied that Syrian government forces had been dropping barrel bombs indiscriminately on rebel-held areas, killing thousands of civilians.

Assad dismissed the allegation as a "childish story", in a wide-ranging interview with the BBC.

"We have bombs, missiles and bullets... There is [are] no barrel bombs, we don't have barrels."

Many U.S.-led coalition states have denied co-operating with Assad, whom they have urged to step down since an uprising against his rule erupted in 2011.

But the Islamic State's (IS) seizure of large parts of Syria and Iraq in the past year and its creation of a "caliphate" has prompted officials to consider working with the Syrian leader to combat the group.

Despite this, Assad ruled out joining the international coalition that is seeking to "degrade and destroy" IS.

"No, definitely we cannot and we don't have the will and we don't want, for one simple reason - because we cannot be in an alliance with countries which support terrorism," he said.

Assad stressed that he was not against co-operating over IS with other countries. But he would refuse to talk with American officials, he said, "because they don't talk to anyone, unless he's a puppet", an apparent reference to Western- and Gulf Arab-backed opposition leaders, the BBC notes.

"And they easily trample over international law, which is about our sovereignty now, so they don't talk to us, we don't talk to them."

The president did concede, however, that his government had been receiving information indirectly via third parties about sorties by U.S. and Arab warplanes over Syria.

"Sometimes, they convey a message, a general message, but there's nothing tactical," he said, adding: "There is no dialogue. There's, let's say, information, but not dialogue."

Assad dismissed efforts by the U.S. to train and equip a "moderate" rebel force to fight IS militants on the ground in Syria, saying it was a "pipe-dream". He argued that there were no moderates, only extremists from IS and al Qaeda's affiliate in Syria, al-Nusra Front.