Russia dramatically increases flights over US positions in Syria
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Russian military jets have flown over US positions in al-Tanf, on Syria’s tri-border area with Jordan and Iraq, 25 times in March. In January, that figure was 14. No flights were recorded in February.
Lt Gen Alexus Grynkewich, combined forces air component commander for US Central Command, told NBC News that the last overflight happened on Wednesday, March 22.
“They’re regularly flying directly overhead of our units, and I’ve defined directly overhead as within about a mile, no more than a mile offset one side or the other, while we’ve got forces right there on the ground,” said Grynkewich. “So it’s an uncomfortable situation.”
Al-Tanf has been under US control since 2016, when Islamic State (ISIS) militants were expelled from the area. Thousands of families fleeing government violence have been trapped at the Rukban refugee camp since Jordan closed its borders there. The US has armed and funded men from Rukban, which formed the opposition Syrian Free Army (formerly Commandos of the Revolutionaries). The US continues to have a military presence in al-Tanf.
The US and Russia agreed to split the airspace over Syria and to not fly over each other’s positions in 2019. Grynkewich said recent Russian overflights are a violation of this understanding. Russians have retorted that they do not recognize the airspace over al-Tanf as part of the US sphere of influence, or that they are responding to US-led Coalition activity in the area.
The dramatic increase in overflights could be related to an incident over the Black Sea last week, in which a Russian fighter jet dumped fuel and collided with a US Reaper drone, which went down.
Grynkewich suggest Russian wants to take a more aggressive posture against the US presence in Syria, but argues that it is nonetheless “a very strange time to do this,” given the two countries’ cooperation in the fight against ISIS in the Syrian Desert.
“What it is really is a distraction from the fight against ISIS,” he said. “It hasn’t affected the fight on the ground yet, but it certainly has the potential to.”