A Russian Su-24 strike aircraft in the sky over the Khmeimim airbase in Syria. Photo: Dmitriy Vinogradov / RIA Novosti
Russian fighter jets have flown over a United States military garrison in the southeastern Syrian area of al-Tanf nearly every day in March, Lieutenant General Alexus Grynkewich, combined forces air component commander for U.S. Central Command, told NBC News on March 23.
According to the commander, Russian fighter jets “violated” the airspace over al-Tanf roughly 25 times so far this month, compared to zero times in February and 14 in January.
Su-34s were among the Russian fighter jets that recently flew over al-Tanf garrison. Some of the fighter jets were reportedly carrying air-to-air missiles, while others were carrying air-to-ground munitions.
“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 at ATG,” said Grynkewich. “So it’s an uncomfortable situation.”
Grynkewich told NBC News that he does not think the Russians have any incentive to attack al-Tanf. “But it just increases the risk of miscalculation, and given things like the MQ-9 incident in the Black Sea, it’s not the kind of behavior that I’d expect out of a professional Air Force.”
Around 200 U.S. troops are usually deployed at al-Tanf. The U.S.-led coalition maintains a 55-kilometer no-fly zone around the garrison that was established in 2016 on a strategic highway linking Damascus and Iraq’s Baghdad with the alleged goal of fighting ISIS.
Syria and its allies have been growing frustrated with U.S. illegitimate presence at al-Tanf. During his recent visit to Russia, President Bashar al-Assad told Sputnik that the coalition has turned the garrison into a bastion for terrorists.
“We are in a state of direct confrontation with terrorist groups near the area of al-Tanf. Al-Tanf serves entirely as a base for training terrorists, and has no purpose other than that. What benefits do American forces drive from their deployment in the desert region?” the Syrian president told the Russian news agency.
He added, “There is no doubt that the U.S. has barracks for terrorists, where tens of thousands of them and their families are accommodated. They are transferred between different areas from time to time in order to carry out terror attacks against Syrian army soldiers, and cause chaos. We are quite sure of these moves, and have abundant pieces of evidence in this regard.”
Last year, Russian fighter jets hit U.S. proxies in al-Tanf and in nearby areas on multiple occasions in response to attacks that targeted Syrian government forces.
Al-Tanf was also directly targeted by Iranian-backed forces more than once over the past year. On January 20, three suicide drones attacked the garrison. Two of the drones were shot down by coalition air defenses. However, the third hit a compound within the garrison. The attack wounded at least three Syrian militants.
The recent increase in Russian sorties over al-Tanf is likely meant to mount more pressure on the U.S. as well as to keep an eye on coalition proxies in the garrison.
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Want to know how you can fix that? Leave Syria.
USA terrorists complain about losing a drone in the Black Sea meanwhile they are illegally inside of Syria…
And then they even complain that Russia is flying over their illegal occupation lol.
Message for Mr Grynkewich…..didums. Prepare for eviction.
Professional… there’s nothing professional being in a country illegally.
Talking about yourself, shitskin?
I’m Mexican American, prick.
I’ll say it again, I’m Mexican American and proud of it, pricks.
Go back to your shithole, shitskin. No? But keep telling other where to go?
Morally speaking commies and mossheadists are obligated to attack americunt and kikerael before even touching anything Islamic or pretending to hold any Sceptre of Justice.
BRICS are hereby the dogs of Justice, while Islamists are Lions of Justice, due to harboring kikeraeli swine like the americunts do.
Saving Islam and Islamists is Justice and Sunnah.
#YouFaggotHarborers
25 times, and March is not over yet! One day Syrian army should send ballistic missiles of “Iskander” to this base to mage their land free.
They are flying in Syria right not in the us
Flew 25 over those bastards and didn’t drop a few bombs or fire some air-to-surface missiles at those bastards? Downright ridiculous waste of time and fuel. Bomb those bastards so they leave Syria!
Well they should drop some bombs next time.
Americans will be there until not a single sand nigger is left in Syria. Doing a good job cleaning up these human feces.
I see the pro-US trolls are partying here.
The general complaining about the Russian activity near the U.S. base, should be worried. Russia could destroy that base with an air attack easily. The base is literally like a Roman Empire outpost, completely vulnerable to attack, and easily surrounded. The U.S. base has nothing but large concrete barriers around it, like they built in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some heavy FAB bombs from Russian aircraft would obliterate the thing.
Parallels of Roman Syria area of Palmyra and Valerian’s fate- re the US bases in Syria.
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Terrorists must be observed.
Hey you DUMB FUCK TERRORIST USA Russia CANNOT VIOLATE your airspace as you are in Syria ILLEGALLY you dumb fat yanks. Go ahead and try and enforce your so called ILLEGAL AIRSPACE over your ILLEGAL OCCUPYING BASE and see what that gets you, a HYPERSONIC MISSILE RIGHT UP YOUR ARSES. =Z=
This what happens when Assad and his father were too busy playing big world dicks with oil money instead of educating Syrians and building a nation. Now Surians are going extinct, while the territory is run by Mercs for hire of all sorts.
Hey you DUMB FUCK TERRORIST Iran CANNOT VIOLATE your airspace as you are in Syria ILLEGALLY you dumb fat muzlims. Go ahead and try and enforce your so called ILLEGAL existence over your ILLEGAL OCCUPYING BASE and see what that gets you, a HYSTERiCAL MUZLIM FAGGOT RIGHT UP YOUR ARSES. =Z=
ATTENTION: some poofter yank no doubt hijacked my ORIGINAL POST this is what i posted below not what is above they have changed certain words 100% NAZI USA HACKER DONE IT.
Hey you DUMB FUCK TERRORIST Russia CANNOT VIOLATE your airspace as you are in Syria ILLEGALLY you dumb fuck NAZI USA. Go ahead and try and enforce your so called ILLEGAL AIRSPACE over your ILLEGAL OCCUPYING BASE and see what that gets you, a HYPERSONIC MISSILE RIGHT UP YOUR FAT NAZI USA ARSE. =Z=
One day the Americans will be able to bring their Imperial LNG from Qatar to European markets. In the meantime, everybody can go green because the Americans lost the wars to secure the world’s hydrocarbons and their own supply is a giant Ponzi scheme.