Isis Area News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Conversations have not occurred. but i would expect they will begin in short order. >> reporter: and when those conversations start, is it merely going to be russia or the u.s. saying we plan to act in this area, so your military interests will be safe. or will there be any sort of coordination in efforts from the u.s. military? >> well, i think it's hard to prejudge at this point exactly what the conversations look like, other than that they will abide for the description i have used here for a couple weeks now. these are going to be practical, tactical level conversations. and we have long s...

About the geographic low kags of where the air strikes happened and correspond with what we understand are isis territories. >> so basically, right now, isis has a large swath of syria as their territory. they have taken it over and they're holding it. it's a large location that goes -- sort of sweeps across the country from the north all along the east over towards iraq. what we're seeing these air strikes, these air strikes by the russians today are over on the western side of the country. that's the -- over by tartis that the russians control latakia and just outside of homs. so what do we ...

Specifically brought up today on capitol hill. >> it was perfectly clear what russia's intentions are. to prop up bashar al assad, the father of isis. to make sure they have a secure base in the region. >> nbc's courtney coobey is here with more. brief us on what we know so far and also about the geographic locations of where these air strikes happened. >> reporter: so far the only air strikes that the u.s. is confirming that they know about was in an area called talbisa outside of homs. the u.s. coalition is operating primarily in the north and in the eastern part of syria. that's where isis ...

This is an ongoing operation, whether they're going to continue to strike in that same area, whether they're going to broaden out the spectrum of the strikes, what they're targeting. nothing like that. >> courtney, you and jim miklaszewski cover this man and a number of others in that building every day for a living. for some folks this is the first time to dial in to the still relatively secretary of defense. i think it's fair i found earlier that he didn't have the urgency in his demeanor and delivery that other officials has had and tends to be rather drawl and genuinely he is an academic, ...

Opposition. no isis over there, very little anyway. what it is also near, of course, the russian interests and n that area. russia built up a large military build-near latakia. they have aircraft, tanks, hundreds of personnel there. we don't know how many they have total. but they also are there -- they want to protect tartus. their warm-water port. the russians are saying they're targeting isis but given the fact there's no isis in the area, that just doesn't seem to be the case. so defense officials here today say, look, we can take what russia says with a grain of salt but they're doing one...