US Air Forces condemn Russian fighter’s harassment of US drone over Syria

US troops patrolling areas in NE Syria during a mission to pursue ISIS militants and sleeper cells – North Press
US troops patrolling areas in NE Syria during a mission to pursue ISIS militants and sleeper cells – North Press

QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – On Tuesday, the US Air Forces condemned in a statement the ‘unprofessional behavior’ of a Russian fighter jet harassing a US drone two days earlier over Syria.

The Russian fighter jet harassed the MQ-9 drone and deployed “flares from a position directly overhead, with only a few meters of separation between aircraft.”

As a result, the statement said, “one of the flares hit the MQ-9, severely damaging its propeller.”

The statement added that the MQ-9 crew controlled the situation, maintaining flight and safely bringing back the drone to its home base.

This is not the first incident of its kind. On July 4, the US Air Forces Central published a video showing Russian fighter jets dropping flares near three US MQ-9 drones over Syria, which forced the drones to take an “evasive action.”

“We call upon the Russian forces in Syria to put an immediate end to this reckless, unprovoked, and unprofessional behavior,” the Tuesday statement read.