A Russian fighter jet flew within a few meters of a US drone over Syria and fired flares at it, striking the American aircraft and damaging it, the US military said Tuesday, the latest in a string of aggressive intercepts by Russia in the region.
A senior Air Force commander said the move on Sunday was an attempt by the Russians to knock the MQ-9 Reaper drone out of the sky and came just a week after a Russian fighter jet flew dangerously close to a US surveillance aircraft carrying a crew in the region, jeopardizing the lives of the four Americans on board.
“One of the Russian flares struck the US MQ-9, severely damaging its propeller,” Lt. Gen. Alex Grynkewich, the head of US Air Forces Central, said in a statement describing the latest close call. “We call upon the Russian forces in Syria to put an immediate end to this reckless, unprovoked, and unprofessional behavior.”
Grynkewich said one of the crew members operating the drone remotely kept it in the air and flew it back to its home base.
The Sunday incident is the latest in a series of encounters between Russian fighter jets and U.S. aircraft flying over Syria. U.S. leaders have noted the uptick and so far have discounted any connection to Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine, where the U.S. and Western allies are actively supporting Kyiv’s fight against.
