U.S. Marines with Weapons Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment provide security support during mission on Sept. 9, 2018, at an undisclosed location in Syria. (Cpl. Gabino Perez/Marine Corps)
Russia had protested over provocative actions by United States forces in the northeastern Syrian governorate of Raqqa, Rear Admiral Oleg Gurinov, deputy chief of the Russian Center for Reconciliation in Syria, said on June 16.
During a briefing, Gurinov said that units from the U.S.-led coalition moved along agreed upon non-deconflicted routes in the governorate.
“Provocative actions by US army units were reported from the Raqqa governorate. Two motor convoys of the so-called international anti-terrorist coalition were seen moving along the non-deconflicted routes near the settlements of al-Terwaziya and Kwara. The Russian side issued a protest to the coalition,” the Russian military official said.
“The violation of deconfliction rules by the US-led coalition jeopardizes the fragile balance of power in the region which was reached thanks to Russia’s efforts and has a destructive effect on the development of the situation,” he added.
The U.S. withdrew its troops from Raqqa and several areas in the neighboring governorate of Aleppo in 2019 to facilitate a Turkish offensive against its own proxy group, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Back then, the Russian Military Police and the Syrian Arab Army deployed several units in SDF-held areas in the two governorates and a deconfliction agreement was reached.
U.S. military presence in Syria is today limited to 900 troops deployed between oil and gas fields in the northeastern governorates of al-Hasakah and Deir Ezzor as well as in a garrison in the southeastern area of al-Tanf that blocks the strategic Damascus-Baghdad highway. The Syrian government rejects this deployment and considers it to be an occupation.
Tensions between Russian and U.S. forces in Syria rose recently, as Whashigton boosted efforts to expand its presence in the war-torn country.
Earlier this week, the U.S. Central Command said that stealth F-22 Raptors fighter jets were deployed from Langley Air Force Base to Jordan due to what it described as an “increasingly unsafe and unprofessional behavior” by Russian fighter jets in the region.
The step didn’t however deter Russia whose fighter jets continued to conduct sorties over U.S. bases in Syria, according to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Earlier this year, several reports talked about U.S. plans to re-establish a presence in Raqqa. Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya warned last month that Washington was forming a new proxy group in the governorate from former members of ISIS and other terrorist groups to further destabilize Syria.