Russia, US planes in safety test over Syria

US and Russian aircraft have conducted communication tests over Syria, US officials said, in tentative signs the powers are working together ahead of UN talks aimed at ending the war. Russian officials on Tuesday also said its jets bombed 24 targets in Syria using coordinates supplied by “opposition representatives”, the first time it has claimed to work with those fighting Syria’s government since beginning its air offensive. “The coordinates of all of these targets were given to us by opposition representatives,” senior military official Andrei Kartapolov said, without specifying the groups involved. Hours later the Pentagon said its fighter pilots communicated directly with Russian jets in the skies over Syria, in the first test of a new strategy to ensure the two sides’ parallel campaigns do not boil over into conflict between them.