Air & Space Forces Magazine, the Air & Space Forces magazine, said the Russian Federation has stepped up its pursuit of US troops in Syria. Russian planes fly over US positions and come within a few hundred yards of the fighters, officials said.
US Air Force Lt. Gen. Ninth Air Force Commander Alexus Grinkevich expressed dismay at the actions of Russian fighter jets, warning in a statement that they increased the “risk of ‘calculation error”. The publication refers to data from AFCENT, according to which “Russia has regularly invaded the airspace over Syria”. Armed Russian warplanes have flown over US ground positions more than two dozen times since early March.
A Russian surface-to-air missile was even fired at an American drone. And on November 27, the SA-22 object in eastern Syria attacked the American MQ-9, but the missile missed, the magazine writes.
U.S. Air Force Central Command says incidents involving Russian fighter jets demonstrate pilots’ ‘dangerous’ tactics, threatening the approximately 900 U.S. troops in Syria helping local groups in the fight against militants, as well than American partners. The Russian Federation is in the country, supporting Bashar al-Assad’s regime, the publication says.
This type of unprofessional and dangerous behavior in Syria is not new, but has increased over the past two months and puts our troops in the air and on the ground at risk. We do not expect this kind of behavior from professional armed forces.
- said the representative of the US Central Command, Colonel Joe Buccino.
The magazine says the most recent incident took place on April 18. A Russian military plane flew over US airspace in eastern Syria. According to the Central Directorate of the Air Force, American fighters took off from air bases in the region and intercepted a Russian plane. During the intercept, the Russian pilot “maneuvered unprofessionally” within 2,000 feet of the US plane, the command later said, violating existing conflict resolution protocols.
In total, since March 1, “63 overflights have been recorded as of April 19, including 26 in combat”.
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