Russian fighter jet damages U.S. drone in Syria after firing flares – National | 24CA News
A Russian fighter jet flew inside a number of meters of a U.S. drone over Syria and fired flares at it, placing the American plane and damaging it, the U.S. navy mentioned Tuesday, the most recent in a string of aggressive intercepts by Russia within the area.
A senior Air Force commander mentioned the transfer on Sunday was an try by the Russians to knock the MQ-9 Reaper drone out of the sky and got here only a week after a Russian fighter jet flew dangerously near a U.S. surveillance plane carrying a crew within the area, jeopardizing the lives of the 4 Americans on board.
“One of the Russian flares struck the U.S. MQ-9, severely damaging its propeller,” Lt. Gen. Alex Grynkewich, the top of U.S. Air Forces Central, mentioned in an announcement describing the most recent shut name. “We call upon the Russian forces in Syria to put an immediate end to this reckless, unprovoked, and unprofessional behavior.”
Grynkewich mentioned one of many crew members working the drone remotely saved it within the air and flew it again to its dwelling base.
This picture from video launched by the U.S. Air Force, exhibits a broken propeller from a U.S. drone, July 23, 2023. (U.S. Air Force through AP).
The Sunday incident is the most recent in a collection of encounters between Russian fighter jets and U.S. plane flying over Syria. U.S. leaders have famous the uptick and up to now have discounted any connection to Russia’s ongoing conflict in Ukraine, the place the U.S. and Western allies are actively supporting Kyiv’s combat towards Moscow.
Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, mentioned he’s unsure what triggered the rise. “We’ve got analysts trying to figure that out. I don’t know if it’s connected to Ukraine or not. Right now, there’s nothing to suggest that it is,” he informed reporters throughout a latest briefing.
Others have steered that it stems from a rising co-ordination amongst Russia, Syria and Iran and is supposed to influence the U.S. to go away Syria, thus opening the door for extra Iranian exercise, significantly within the South.
Randa Slim, director of the Conflict Resolution and Track II Dialogues Program on the Washington-based Middle East Institute, mentioned that earlier than the conflict in Ukraine, Syria was “seen by the Russians as an arena for competition as well as cooperation with U.S.” Their shared eager about Syria included limiting Iran and Turkey’s footprints, stopping a navy escalation between Iran and Israel that might provoke a regional conflict, selling a political answer to the conflict in Syria, and denying the Islamic State a secure haven.
However, for the reason that conflict in Ukraine, Slim mentioned “there is an increasing convergence between the Russian and Iranian positions around an endgame that sees U.S. forces pushed out of Syria.”
The U.S. and different allies of Ukraine have accused Iran of supplying lots of of drones to Russia for its conflict effort, which Russia denies.
The Deir Ez-Zor province in jap Syrian has been a specific space of rigidity among the many U.S., Russia and Iran. Control of the oil-rich province is break up between Syrian authorities forces and the U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, with a presence of each Iranian militias and U.S. troops. It was additionally the positioning of a confrontation between U.S. forces and Russian mercenaries from the Wagner personal navy firm in 2018.
On Thursday, Syrian state news company SANA reported that residents protested within the city of al-Mayadeen, in Deir Ez-Zor province, “in rejection of the American occupation of Syrian lands,” calling for the withdrawal of American and allied SDF forces.
In the entire Russian air intercepts besides the one occasion per week in the past, the U.S. plane have been MQ-9 drones with out crew members. On that Sunday, nonetheless, the Russian Su-35 jet few near a U.S. MC-12 surveillance plane with a crew, forcing it to undergo the turbulent wake.
U.S. officers on the time referred to as it a major escalation within the ongoing string of encounters between U.S. and Russian plane that might have resulted in an accident or lack of life. They mentioned the Russian transfer hampered the crew members’ capability to soundly function their aircraft.
In latest weeks, U.S. officers mentioned, Russian fighter jets have repeatedly harassed U.S. MQ-9 drones, that are conducting anti-Islamic State group missions, largely in western Syria.
On a number of events up to now three weeks, the officers mentioned, Russian fighter jets flew dangerously near the U.S. Reapers, setting off flares and forcing the drones to take evasive maneuvers.
U.S. and Russian navy officers talk steadily over a deconfliction telephone line in the course of the encounters, protesting the opposite aspect’s actions.
There are about 900 U.S. forces in Syria, and others transfer out and in to conduct missions focusing on Islamic State group militants.
© 2023 The Canadian Press
