US coalition’s drones fly too close to Russian fighter jet in Syria — top brass

MOSCOW, September 17. /TASS/. A US-led coalition’s MQ-9 Reaper drone dangerously approached a Russian fighter jet in Syria’s Homs governorate, Oleg Ignasyuk, deputy chief of the Russian Center for Reconciliation of the Opposing Parties in Syria (a division of the Russian defense ministry), said on Tuesday.
“A coalition’s MQ-9 Reaper reconnaissance combat unmanned aerial vehicles dangerously approached a Su-35 plane of the Russian aerospace forces making a planned flight over Syria’s Homs governorate,” he said, adding that the Russian pilot demonstrated high professionalism and took timely measures to prevent a collision.
He also said that a pair of the coalition’s F-15, a pair of F-16, and a pair of Rafale fighter jets, as well as a pair of A-10 Thunderbolt attack bombers violated Syria’s airspace in the al-Tanf area, across which international air routes run, twelve times during the day.
Apart from that, in his words, eight violations of the deconfliction protocols of December 9, 2019 linked with the flights by the US-led coalition unmanned aerial vehicles were reported in Syria in the past 24 hours.
According to Ignasyuk, no shelling attacks on positions of the Syrian government army by terrorist groups were reported during the day.