Spotlight: Russia, U.S. vie for influence in Mideast

The U.S.-led coalition intensified airstrikes in Iraq at the weekend as Russia ratcheted up military and political campaigns in neighboring Syria.

A total of 22 airstrikes were carried out on Saturday, most of them against Islamic State (IS) militants in the Iraqi towns of Kisik, Ramadi and Sinjar, the U.S. military said in a statement on Sunday.

The statement did not mention any airstrikes in Syria.

A total of 30 militants of the IS group were killed in airstrikes and clashes with Iraqi security forces on Saturday near the IS-held city of Ramadi, the capital of Iraq's western province of Anbar, a provincial security official said.

In one incident, a warplane bombarded an IS headquarters in the town of al-Qaim near the Iraqi-Syrian border, leaving at least 18 militants killed and destroying six of their vehicles, the official told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The official could not immediately judge whether it was an Iraqi or a U.S.-led coalition strike.

Russia started airstrikes in Syria on Sept. 30, a move hailed by Syrian government officials as an efficient step in the war against terrorism.

On Oct. 8, Syria's Army Chief of Staff Gen. Abdullah Ayoub said the military has unleashed a broad offensive against rebel-held areas across the country, buoyed by Russian air support.

The battle map in the country has largely changed in favor of the Syrian government with Russian support in the air, forcing militant groups to switch to defense recently.

Earlier this month, U.S. and Russian aircraft came within visual range of each other during a mission, fanning up fears for potential conflicts between the two sides in vying for more influence in the region.

To avoid clashes in the Syrian airspace during their airstrikes, the United States and Russia started their latest round of military contacts after a long hiatus due to rivalry on the Ukraine crisis.

The Pentagon announced on Tuesday that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Russia on safe flight operations over Syria.

The document did not establish any military cooperation between the two in Syria, neither did it include intelligence sharing or any sharing of target information, said Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad unexpectedly visited Moscow last week, where he met his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin along with other top Russian officials.

Several days after the visit, Assad told visiting Russian lawmaker Alexander Yushenko that he is ready to participate in any early poll "when necessary," the pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV said Sunday.

Yushenko said the Syrian president agreed to hold preliminary elections in the country, on condition that the move has the backing of the population.

Meanwhile, Russia and the United States also engaged themselves in multilateral talks in Vienna on the Syrian crisis that also involved Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday that the Vienna talks were "constructive and productive and succeeded in surfacing some ideas."

However, he fell short of going into details of the meeting, mentioning that the four states could meet again as early as next Friday to see if there was sufficient common ground to "advance a meaningful political process." Endi