Russia only gave the United States an hour’s warning ahead of the strikes and did not specify where they would occur, riling many in the Pentagon who had been hoping for clearer and more detailed lines of communication.
A Russian general asked the U.S. to remove its planes from Syrian airspace Wednesday, just hours before Russian airstrikes began there.  It would appear Russia is creating a battle space to re-stabilize Assad…

SYRIA – The Russian three-star general, who was part of the newly formed intelligence cell with Iraq, Iran, and the Syrian government, arrived in Baghdad at 9 a.m. local time and informed U.S. officials that Russian strikes would be starting imminently—and that the U.S. should refrain from conducting strikes and move any personnel out. The only notice the U.S. received about his visit was a phone call one hour earlier.
The Russian strikes were centered about the city of Homs, according to initial accounts in the local press and in social media. That’s significant, because Homs is not known to be an ISIS stronghold.
The Local Coordination Committees of Syria, opposition-linked on-the-ground monitors of the conflict, estimate that 36 people were killed in Homs alone, one of three largely ISIS-free provinces Russia bombed today. The airstrikes targeted five northern suburbs of Homs: Talbiseh, Al Ghantoo, Al Rastan, Al Zafrana and Al Mukarramiyah.
The Western-backed Free Syrian Army told Reuters that it had been bombed by Russian forces.
“The northern countryside of Hama has no presence of ISIS at all and is under the control of the Free Syrian Army,” said Major Jamil al-Saleh, whose group has been given anti-tank weapons by the West. (read more)