A fully armed MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle taxis down the runway at an air base in Afghanistan on its way to another wartime mission. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Brian Ferguson).
The United States-led coalition’s drones were spotted flying over Syria five times during the past day in violation of the memorandum of understanding with Russia, Rear Admiral Oleg Gurinov, deputy chief of the Russian Center for Reconciliation in Syria said on June 30.
“During the day, five violations of the memorandum of understanding between the Russian Defense Ministry and the US Department of Defense of October 26, 2015 linked with the flights of the so-called US-led international anti-terrorist coalition’s unmanned aerial vehicles were reported. None agreed with the Russian side,” the commander said.
Gurinov didn’t mention where the flights took place. However, coalition drones are known to operate over the northwestern Syrian region of Greater Idlib, which is controlled by al-Qaeda-affiliated Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham and other terrorist groups, on a regular basis.
Just a week earlier, three fully-armed U.S. combat drones were spotted over different parts of Greater Idlib at the same time.
Coalition drones also operate over the government-held central region, where ISIS cells have been waging an insurgency for a few years now.
While the U.S.-led coalition claims that its operations in Syria are directed against ISIS and other terrorist groups, its drones may be also collecting intelligence on government forces and their allies, including the Russian military.
Tensions between Russian and U.S. forces in Syria have been mounting since Moscow launched a special military operation in Ukraine last year.
The U.S. maintains some 900 troops in Syria, all of them are deployed between key oil and gas fields in the northeastern region of the country and on the strategic Damascus-Baghdad highway in the southeastern region. Damascus does not approve of this presence and considers it to be an occupation.
Meanwhile the Russian military deployment in Syria, which is sanctioned by Damascus, is much larger. Russian troops are deployed at two large bases in the western region and dozens of smaller positions throughout the country.
In recent months, both sides exchanged accusations of provocations and unprofessional aerial operations over Syria. While this tension could lead to some accident in the near future, a military confrontation between the two remains highly unlikely.
MORE ON THIS TOPIC:
i dont see the problem, shoot them down!
exactly.
what are the toy-boy bumbandit lgbtqipan+++ american gi joes going to do about it?
they already know their super-duper f-22 flying shoe boxes are no match for the superior russian military – that’s why they shit themselves and run for the hills whenever a su-35 even thinks about taking off from a russian airfield.
“syria does not approve of [the united states] presence.” hmmm… then why not bomb them out? fire artillery shells on their bases? isn’t that what any sovereign nation does with a foreign army occupying their land?
ak porušujú tak ich treba začať dávať dolu. rf by mala za týmto účelom vyzbrojiť sýriu. tak ako darebácky štát usa vyzbrojuje banderovských fašistov na ukrajine, tak by mali rusi vyzbrojiť sýriu.
amerikan understanding=lgbt
kremlin whining again.
the other guys have not been following all the rules, the geneva convention, the minsk agreement, the who rules, the un decisions, all the countless memorandums, the minutes of all the chatting meetings, m.m. as russia are doing it.
you are a very clueless person, as the entire pearl clutching non-stop whining and hypocrisy of western governments since the smo started after nato’s and the u.s. trail of blood for the last 70 years, as if russia invented invasion. sit down and put another dick in your mouth, idiot.
shoot them down
is a memorandum or any type of agreement with the usa worth even the paper it is written on or the words used?
russia needs to stop with these warnings and do whatever is required. the us have been violating lots of agreements like nato expansion. does the kremlin really believe their complaints / warnings will not be ignored?
time to shoot them down…