US-led coalition jet came ‘dangerously’ close to Russian aircraft over Syria’s Homs

A fighter-bomber jet of the US-led coalition in Syria came “dangerously” close to a Russian surveillance aircraft over Homs province on Sunday, Russia’s TASS state news agency reported, citing a Russian military official in the Middle Eastern country.

"On August 17 morning, a coalitions’ F/A-18 fighter bomber dangerously approached an An-30 plane of the Russian aerospace forces making a planned flight over Syria. The incident took place at an altitude of around 6,700 meters over the al-Tanf area in the Homs governorate," he said, adding that the Russian pilot demonstrated high professionalism and took timely measures to prevent a collision.

He also said that three pairs of the coalition’s F-15 and a pair of Typhoon fighter jets, two pairs of F/A-18 fighter bombers and three pairs of A-10 Thunderbolt attack bombers violated Syria’s airspace in the al-Tanf area, across which international air routes run, 18 times during the day.

Apart from that, in his words, six 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.

The US has 900 troops in Syria and 2,500 in neighboring Iraq on a mission to advise and assist local forces trying to prevent a resurgence of ISIS, which in 2014 seized large swaths of both countries but was later pushed back.