A senior White House official confirmed Tuesday that the Syrian government was notified in advance of overnight airstrikes targeting Islamic State elements in Syria.
Aboard Air Force One en route from Washington to New York, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest acknowledged that the U.S. notified the Syrian government but that "We did not provide them advance notice of the timing or of targets that the U.S. was going to strike."
U.S. Ambassador to the the U.N. Samantha Power was directed by the White House to inform her Syrian counterpart that the airstrikes would occur.
Earnest emphasized that while the U.S. notified the Syrian government, "we did not coordinate with them."
It seems the main reason for notification was to ensure that coalition aircraft were not attacked by Syrian forces. Earnest said "we warned them to not pose a threat to our aircraft ... Again going forward there is no plan to have any coordination whatsoever with the Assad regime."
Overnight airstrikes targeted the defacto IS headquarters in the Syrian city of Raqqa, as well as bases, checkpoints and training centers of the militant Islamic group in at least four Syrian provinces.
