The US denounces for the second consecutive day “harassment” by Russian planes of its drones in Syria

Russia points out that US drones have violated a closed space for Russian-Syrian maneuvers

July 7 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The United States has denounced this Thursday, for the second consecutive day, an alleged harassment by Russian combat planes of drones of the US Air Force in Syria.

The incident took place around 9:30 a.m. (local time), when Russian military planes “had unsafe and unprofessional behavior” when interacting with several US drones that were carrying out a mission against Islamic State targets.

“Russian aircraft have dropped flares ahead of the drones and have flown dangerously close, endangering the safety of all aircraft involved,” read a statement from the US Air Force Central Command.

This is the second complaint of this type in the last 24 hours, since the first took place this Wednesday around 10:40 a.m. (local time), when they launched parachute flares at the drones and got dangerously close to them, forcing the American pilots to perform evasive maneuvers.

“These events represent another example of unprofessional and unsafe actions by the Russian air forces operating in Syria, threatening the security of both the Washington-led and Russian international coalition forces,” he said. added General Alex Grynkewich.

The US authorities have urged Moscow to stop “this reckless behavior” and have asked it to adhere to “the standards of behavior expected of a professional air force” in order to defeat Islamic State.

For its part, the French Joint Chiefs of Staff has also denounced that this Thursday Russian aircraft complicated the flight of two French fighters that were on a protection mission on the border with Iraq and Syria.

“The French pilots have maneuvered to control the risk of an accident before continuing with their patrol,” the agency reported through its profile on the social network Twitter.

RUSSIA ACCUSES THE COALITION OF VIOLATING THE BORDERS

The Russian Army has accused the international coalition led by the United States of violating the borders in an area of ​​Syria that would be closed to flights due to military maneuvers by Russian and Syrian aircraft.

“Systematic violations of conflict resolution protocols related to UAV flights of the so-called International Anti-Terrorist Coalition continue,” said Commander Oleg Gurinov, deputy director of the Russian center for reconciliation of the warring parties in Syria.

“During the day, nine violations were registered. All in the area closed to air flights in connection with the joint Russian-Syrian exercise in northern Syria,” he declared, while expressing that he is “concerned” by the maneuvers of US unmanned aerial vehicles, according to the Interfax news agency.

For his part, the Russian ambassador in Washington, Anatoli Antonov, has pointed out that the US attacks against actions of the Russian Army in Syria lack “common sense”. “We believe that the regular and sometimes beyond the limits of decency attacks against the highly professional actions of Russian military personnel (…) are devoid of common sense,” he said.

“They divert attention from the fact that the Americans themselves violate the safety rules of flying in the sky of Syria on a daily basis,” he declared, indicating that the US military is in Syria “against the norms of International Law, occupying certain regions of the country, hiding behind the need to carry out anti-terrorism tasks”.