WASHINGTON — Pentagon officials complained to the Russian military on Thursday that Russian airstrikes in Syria are targeting areas of the country where few, if any, Islamic State fighters are operating, a White House spokesman said.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Pentagon officials participated in an hour-long videoconference with Russian officials in an initial discussion of ways to avoid U.S. and Russian forces firing on each other in Syria.

Tensions between the U.S. and Russia are escalating over Russian airstrikes that apparently are serving to strengthen Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Earnest described Russia's operations, which began Monday, as "indiscriminate military operations against the Syrian opposition" that were dangerous for Russia. Elissa Slotkin, who represented the U.S. in Thursday'sPentagon talks, said as much during the call with the Russians, according to Earnest. Slotkin is the acting assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs.

"She pointed out that the Russian military operations we've seen so far raise some concerns, because Russia is targeting areas where there are few if any ISIL forces operating," Earnest said.

Russia's defense ministry said that over the past 24 hours it had damaged or destroyed 12 targets in Syria belonging to the Islamic State militant group, including a command center and ammunition depots. A U.S.military spokesman in Baghdad, Col. Steve Warren, said he had no indication that the Russians had hit Islamic State targets.

Lt. Gen. Robert Otto, the deputy chief of staff for intelligence and surveillance for the Air Force, said Thursday that even as the U.S. tries to make sure Russian airstrikes don't conflict with ongoing coalition operations in Syria, he does not believe there will be any real intelligence-sharing with Moscow.

"I have a low level of trust in the Russians. It's trust but verify," he said. "It's easy, then, to exchange factual data where you're going to operate. I would not envision a relationship where I would share some of my intelligence with them."

He said a key goal is to ensure that the aircraft don't run into each other.

He added that the Russians have been dropping 'dumb bombs' -- munitions that are not precision-guided. And the use of such indiscriminate targeting, he said, could kill innocent civilians, which could have the unintended consequence of creating more terrorists than they kill.

Warren said any agreements reached in the Pentagon talks would be reflected in the U.S.-led coalition's airoperations, which including daily strikes on Islamic State targets in both Syria and Iraq.

"While there is always danger of conflict, of inadvertent contact" between coalition and Russian warplanes, "we are continuing with our operations," Warren told reporters at the Pentagon. He said there was only one U.S. airstrike in Syria over the past 24 hours, compared to an average of eight strikes per day, but added that this had nothing to do with the start of Russian airstrikes Wednesday.

On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Ash Carter complained that Moscow did not use formal channels to give advance notice of its airstrikes to Washington, which is has been conducting its own airstrikes in Syria against IS for more than a year.

Carter said the Russians should not be supporting the Assad government and their military moves are "doomed to fail."

The U.S. defense chief also said the Obama administration was open to holding direct talks with the Russians on "deconflicting" their military operations in Syria, or arranging ways to avoid firing upon each other or creating unintended incidents in the air.

"Our goals for this meeting are the following: to facilitate the flow of information between coalition forces and Russian elements that will help us maintain the safety of our personnel in the region, which is critical; to ensure that any additional Russian actions do not interfere with our coalition's efforts to degrade and defeat ISIL, and to clarify that broader U.S. security commitments in the region remain unchanged," Carter said.

Conducting the talks on the U.S. side are Slotkin and Vice Adm. Frank C. Pandolfe, the director of strategic plans and policy for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

It was not immediately clear who was representing the Russians.

Associated Press writers Josh Lederman and Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report.

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