A Russian fighter jet fired missiles at a US drone in Syria, damaging the unmanned aerial vehicle, the US military said, in the fourth incident of its kind in recent weeks.
“One of the Russian missiles hit the American MQ-9, seriously damaging the propeller”, dThat says the commander of the 9th Air Force in the Middle East, Lieutenant General Alex Grynkewich, in a statement.
“We call on Russian troops in Syria to immediately end this reckless, unprovoked and unprofessional behavior,” he said, quoted by the US agency AP.
Grynkewich added that one of the crew members piloting the ‘drone’ kept it airborne at a distance and managed to fly it back to base.
The incident, which took place on Sunday, is the latest in a series of “encounters” between Russian fighter jets and US jets over Syria.
In all but one case, a week ago, the US planes were unmanned MQ-9 drones.
The exception occurred on July 16, when a Russian Su-35 fighter jet approached a US MC-12 reconnaissance aircraft carrying a crew conducting operations in support of the international mission against the “jihadist” group Islamic State.
The U.S. military said at the time that the maneuver of the Russian plane had endangered the crew of the MC-12.
In early July, Washington stated that Russian aircraft had squeezed US MQ-9 drones over Syria twice within 24 hours.
In March, the United States charged that a Russian fighter jet damaged the propeller of a ‘drone’ operating over the Black Sea and caused it to crash. Moscow has denied any responsibility.
Source: DN
