Russian Rear Admiral Oleg Gurinov said the protest was launched against the US-led coalition in Syria over the actions of the US military.
Russian forces in Syria Russia’s state news agency TASS reported protesting what Moscow described as “provocative actions” by US forces also deployed in the country.
TASS quoted a senior Russian military official on Friday as saying that “provocative” incidents occurred in Hassakeh province, northeastern Syria, where US forces have been stationed. implemented for a few yearsled a coalition of local Kurdish troops fighting against ISIL (ISIS) and its remnants.
“Provocations by units of the US armed forces have been recorded in Hassakeh province… the Russian side has lodged a protest with the coalition,” said Russian Rear Admiral Oleg Gurinov, head of the Peace Center. Russian league of the opposition parties in Syria, said. TASS.
Gurnivo said the US military had twice been spotted by Russian forces in areas outside their agreed area of operations, but gave no details on when.
“During the joint Russian-Turkish patrols, the movements of two patrols carried out by the so-called anti-terrorist coalition were tracked along non-conflict routes near Deiruna-Aga and Saramsak. . The Russian side protested against the coalition,” Gurinov said, according to TASS.
Russia – which, along with Turkey, is conducting joint patrols in northern Syria – has agreed on special areas where the US-led coalition can operate as it takes in hundreds of ISIL fighters. camped in desolate areas of Syria, where neither the coalition nor the Syrian army could. take full control.
The US-led coalition has been involved in Syria for nearly eight years while Russia intervened in the Syrian Civil War in 2015, tilting the balance in President Bashar Al-Assad’s favor. Since then, Moscow has expanded its military facilities in Syria with a permanent air and naval base.
Last week, the US made many air raids in Syria against what they say are armed groups linked to Iran, which the Pentagon blamed on an earlier drone strike. US officials said the armed group’s attack killed a US military contractor, wounded another and wounded about a dozen US troops at a coalition base in the northeast of the country. , near the city of Hassakeh.
Pro-Iranian forces in Syria warned in an online statement signed by Iran Advisory Committee in Syria that they will Responding to US air strikes on their position.
US military officials on Friday announced that the deployment of the George HW Bush aircraft carrier strike group would be extended following the drone strike by Iran-backed groups.
The decision could mean that the US strike group, and the more than 5,000 US personnel currently in the European Command area of operations, will not return to their home port as scheduled.
“The expansion of the George HW Bush Carrier Strike Group, which includes USS Leyte Gulf, USS Delbert D. Black, and USNS Arctic, allows options to enhance CENTCOM’s ability to respond to a wide range of scenarios. surprise in the Middle East. East,” US Central Command (CENTCOM) spokesman Colonel Joe Buccino said in a statement.
News of the expanded deployment first came a day after the Pentagon doubled the number of US troops injured in a drone strike in Syria to 12.
The Pentagon estimates that eight people have been killed in retaliatory US air strikes against targets it says have links to Iran.
Both the Iranian and Syrian foreign ministries criticized the US air strikes, which Washington said targeting the strategic area Deir ez-Zor bordering Iraq.
In a statement last week, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said the US “terrorist” attacks targeted civilian targets and constituted a violation of international law and national sovereignty. Syrian rights.
“US declares presence in Syria to fight ISIS” [ISIL] which itself plays a major role in creating just an excuse to continue occupying and plundering Syria’s national wealth, including its energy and wheat resources,” he said.
Kanani also said Iran only has military advisers on the ground in Syria at the request of the government.
Syria’s foreign ministry criticized the “brutal” US attacks it said had killed several people and violated its territorial integrity, and promised to “end the US occupation”.
The White House has said attacks on its forces will not force the US to withdraw from Syria.
