MOSCOW, September 2. /TASS/. A statement made by a Pentagon source that wiping out one of the Islamic State leaders, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, is "a joke" is an attempt to justify his lack of awareness, since the US still refuses to coordinate its actions in Syria with Russia, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said on Friday.

"Small wonder that the Pentagon lacks any factual information on the Russian Aerospace Forces’ airstrike on August 30," he asserted. 

"US representatives have said practically daily over the past year that they by no means coordinate or agree military operations in Syria with Russia. But then, how can you get this data? Therefore, the statement of the anonymous Pentagon sources that Russian airstrikes against terrorist Adnani is "a joke" is the only thing they now have to say to justify their ignorance," he said.

Konashenkov also noted that the Russian Defense Ministry does not indulge in "expensive and pointless hunt for individual personalities." "I would like to emphasize once again that the target and the main result of the Russian Aerospace Forces’ air strike on August 30 was not Abu Mohammad al-Adnani but a group of 40 Islamic State militants located in this area," he added.

The Russian Defense Ministry earlier reported that al-Adnani had been killed in an air raid by a Sukhoi Su-34 bomber in Syria’s Aleppo province on August 30. Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said shortly afterwards that the US has no information substantiating the Russian military’s statement. Washington argues that one of the Islamic State leaders had been eliminated by a US surgical airstrike. The Pentagon noted that the results of this operation are not exactly known yet, adding that Washington is still evaluating them.