WASHINGTON—U.S. and Russian officials are each accusing the other side of being the aggressor in a dangerous encounter between a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone and a Russian fighter jet over Syria on July 26.
It’s the sixth reported incident this month, and the second in the past 24 hours, in which the United States has claimed Russian warplanes have flown dangerously close to American manned and unmanned aircraft, putting crews and the planes at risk and raising questions as to what the U.S. may need to do in response.
“We’ve seen the reports, the early reports, of a second Russian fighter aircraft this week flying dangerously close to our drone” on a mission to counter ISIS terrorist group extremists in Syria, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. She did not provide other details, but said Russia’s “close approach to and deployment of flares over U.S. drones during a routine mission” violates international norms.
According to the U.S. officials ,in the incidents over the past two days, Russian warplanes have fired flares that struck U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drones. On Tuesday, the flares damaged a drone’s propeller; on Wednesday, Russian-dropped flares hit a drone. In previous incidents, Russian jets have intercepted the U.S. planes at dangerously close distances, including one instance with a manned aircraft that the U.S. said put the lives of the four American crewmembers at risk.
A senior Russian military leader blamed the U.S. for the latest incident, and said that aircraft from the U.S.–led coalition in Syria violated deconfliction protocols with Russia 10 times in the past 24 hours.
Rear Adm. Oleg Gurinov, the head of the Russian military’s Reconciliation Center in Syria, said that the U.S. drone flew dangerously close to a pair of Russian warplanes in the skies over Syria early Wednesday. Mr. Gurinov said that onboard systems of the Russian Su-34 and Su-35 aircraft spotted the aircraft being targeted and triggered the automatic release of flares.
“The United States are continuing to disinform the public about unlawful flights of its drones in the Syrian air space that have failed to undergo deconflicting procedure while accusing the Russian side of dangerous maneuvering,” Mr. Gurinov said in a statement carried by the Interfax news agency.
He also said the U.S. drone involved in the Tuesday encounter was not cleared through deconfliction procedures and was “entirely provocative.” He said Russian pilots “showed a high degree of professionalism and took timely steps to avoid a collision with the drone.”
Both the U.S. and Russia are conducting missions in Syria. Russia backs the government of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad. The U.S. is working with the Kurdish-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in operations against ISIS extremists. The SDF is in a war with Assad.
