The United States Military on Saturday accused Russian forces of ‘harassing’ American drones over the Syrian territory for the third day in a row. The representative speaking on the behalf of US Military said that the encounter lasted for around 2 hours in which the Russian Fighter jets “once again harassed” three of their MQ-9 drones.
This development comes as a fresh series of conflicts between the US and Russian troops over Syria.
Lt. Gen. Alex Grynkewich, head of U.S. Air Forces Central Command said, “Russian aircraft flew 18 unprofessional close passes that caused the MQ-9s to react to avoid unsafe situations.”
The Russian and Syrian military units were jointly engaged in a six-day training which concluded on Monday as per head of the Russian Reconciliation Center for Syria, Admiral Oleg Gurinov. He also expressed Kremlin’s apprehension regarding the drone operations conducted by US and its allies in the Syrian territory calling it “systematic breaches of established protocols”
The US military said that the first instance occurred on Wednesday morning when Russian military aircraft was seen engaging in “unsafe and unprofessional behaviour.” The American MQ-9 drones over hovering over Syrian lands against the targets of Islamic State when the Russian jets intervened the situation. The same situation was repeated on Thursday when Russian Jets flew unprofessionally against French and US drones.
US along with its key allies including France are on a global mission in defending against the Islamic State Organization which at one point of time held significant territories in Iraq and Syria and proclaimed a caliphate. despite suffering a defeat in 2017, the radical group continues to perpetrate deadly attacks on both the countries.
Grynkewich said, “We continue to encourage Russia to return to the established norms of professional Air Force so that we all can return our focus to ensuring the defeat of ISIS.”
