South Front
Staff Sgt. Roidan Carlson, 2d Combat Camera Squadron aerial combat broadcaster, and Royal Jordanian Air Force Lt. Col. Firas Masadeh, a flying wing commander, taxi in an RJAF F-16 Fighting Falcon before an aerial photography mission May 13, 2014, at an air base in northern Jordan. (U.S. Air Force photo by Capt. Sara Greco/Released)
United States-led coalition’s fighter jets violated Syria’s airspace nine times during the past day, Oleg Gurinov, deputy chief of the Russian Ministry of Defense’ Center for Reconciliation in Syria, announced on July 11.
“Two pairs of the coalition’s F-16 fighter jets, a pair of Typhoon combat aircraft, a pair of Rafale fighter jets, and one MC-12 plane violated Syria’s airspace in the al-Tanf area nine times during the day,” the commander said.
According to Gurinov, coalition drones also violated the deconfliction mechanism in Syria nine times in the past 24 hours, including over an area that was closed for flights due to the joint Russian-Syrian drills in the northern region.
The joint aerial drills started on July 5. The drills, which will continue until mid-July, include actions by aviation, air defense forces and electronic warfare to repel air attacks.
Gurinov said that during the joint Russian-Syrian drills in a period from July 5 through 10 as many as the coalition’s drones violated deconfliction protocols in the closed airspace 55 times and dangerously approached Russian fighter jets ten times.
In addition, coalition drones used their fire guidance systems on Russian fighter jets in four cases, automatically triggering their onboard defense systems to fire at false heat targets.
Both the U.S. and France complained of what they called “harassment” by Russian fighter jets over Syria on multiple occasions this month.
The coalition’s operations in Syria are not greenlighted by Damascus, who consider the presence of American troops on Syrian territory to be an occupation, nor coordinating with the Russian military, who maintains a large presence in the country.
While the U.S. claims that its warplanes are operating over Syria against ISIS, it is possible that they are in fact spying on the Russian-Syrian drills.
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