Russia In Syria: Putin's War On ISIS Offers Turkey Diplomacy And Assad Missiles As Army, Rebels Fight Islamic State

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed to have closer military cooperation Thursday as their opposing Syrian allies battle the Islamic State group in northern Syria.

Putin reportedly expressed his condolences for the deaths of three Turkish soldiers accidentally killed by Russian airstrikes as Ankara's military and sponsored Syrian rebels were closing in on the ISIS-held city of Al-Bab from the north. At the same time, the Russian-backed Syrian army has advanced on the city from the south, sparking fears that clashes could erupt between government and opposition forces simultaneously trying to defeat ISIS.

The war in Syria began in 2011 when mass anti-government protests erupted into an armed insurgency aiming to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Assad. Various opposition groups supported by the West, the Gulf and Turkey have since emerged in the conflict with major fractures in ideology causing significant infighting. Jihadist groups such as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, formerly known as al-Qaeda's Nusra Front, and ISIS have since fought other opposition groups as well as one another. Turkey launched an operation called Euphrates Shield in August to support rebels to eradicate ISIS and limit Kurdish influence near Turkey's borders.

Russia and Iran have backed Assad in the nearly six years of conflict that have killed hundreds of thousands of Syrians and displaced millions more. Russia's airstrikes and Iran's allied militias have largely influenced the Syrian army's recent victories, including the recapture of the strategic city of Aleppo in December. To bolster those gains, Russia earlier this week sent what U.S. officials described as Moscow's largest missile shipment to Syria since the war began.

President Donald Trump has voiced his support for both Putin and Erdogan's campaigns. The White House, which supported Syrian rebels and called on Assad to step down during former President Barack Obama's administration, has said it would be open to working with any country committed to fighting ISIS. Assad has expressed cautious support for Trump's policies, saying earlier this week that he hoped a U.S-Russian alliance would be "positive for the rest of the world, including Syria."

Putin and Erdogan also reportedly agreed Thursday to reemphasize their commitment to peace talks in Astana and Geneva in the latest attempt to reach a political solution to the conflict in Syria.