Washington, September 24 (RHC)-- The United States has not coordinated airstrikes against the ISIL terrorist group in Syria with Damascus, according to the U.S. State Department.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki in Washington said on Tuesday that Washington informed the Syrian government in advance of airstrikes, but there was no strategic coordination with Damascus. “We warned Syria not to engage U.S. aircraft,” said Psaki. “We did not request permission and we did not coordinate our actions with the Syrian government.”

In a separate statement issued earlier in the day, the United States Department of Defense said that there was no “military-to-military” communication with Syria. Army Lt. Gen. William C. Mayville Jr., the Pentagon’s director for operations, claimed that Syrian military radar was “passive” during the U.S.-led airstrikes.

According to the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, some 120 militants from both ISIL and al-Qaeda were killed in the airstrikes carried out by the U.S. military and its “partner nation forces” against targets inside the Syrian territory. Fighter aircraft from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates also reportedly took part in the airstrikes.

Damascus says any strikes by foreign forces against militant strongholds in Syria must be carried out with the approval of the Syrian government. The Syrian Foreign Ministry said in a statement released early on Tuesday that Washington had informed Syria’s permanent ambassador to the United Nations that airstrikes would be launched against the ISIL terrorists in Syria.