Moscow reports 14 breaches of deconfliction protocols by US in Syria

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
15 Jul 2023 22:58
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The airspace violations occurred within the past 24 hours in the Al-Tanf area, which is significant as it intersects with international air routes, as per the Russian military.

In this image from a video released by the US Air Force, Russian military SU-34 and SU-35 aircraft release flares in the flight path of a U.S. Air Force MQ-9 Reaper drone, lower left, on Thursday, July 6, 2023, over Syria (US Air Force via AP)

Rear Adm. Oleg Gurinov, deputy head of the Russian Center for the Reconciliation of Opposing Sides in Syria, reported that the coalition led by the United States breached deconfliction protocols on 14 occasions in Syria, within the last 24 hours.

These violations involved the unauthorized flights of unmanned aerial vehicles by the "international anti-terrorist coalition," led by the United States, without coordination with the Russian side.

The airspace violations occurred in the Al-Tanf area, which is significant as it intersects with international air routes. The aircraft involved in the breaches included two Typhoon and two Rafale fighter jets, along with one MQ-1C drone.

Last month, Gurinov said that the US-led international coalition, which illegitimately occupies parts of Syria's northern territories, is continuing to commit gross violations of deconfliction protocols and of the Air Safety Memorandum in Syria.

"Gross violations of the deconfliction protocols and the bilateral Memorandum on Air Safety in Syria by the US-led so-called international coalition continue. Violations are purposeful and systematic. Over the past day, 18 cases of violations related to the flights of drones and aviation of the coalition were recorded," Gurinov told a briefing, noting that terror attacks against Syrian troops and civilians have increasingly become frequent.

Concurrently, the Syrian news agency SANA reported that the US occupation forces looted a new batch of Syrian oil and smuggled them to their bases in Iraq.

Local sources from the Al-Yarubiyah countryside told the news agency that a convoy of the US occupation forces, consisting of 45 tankers loaded with stolen Syrian oil, left from the illegitimate Al-Mahmoudiyah crossing and entered Iraqi territory.

This is not the first time that the US occupation loots Syrian oil and deprives Syrians of their country's wealth. In April, Syrian media cited sources as saying that the US occupation forces illegally transported 98 tanker trucks filled with oil from Syria to Iraq.

The United States has been for years supporting the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) militias, and the US-backed forces are currently occupying parts of the provinces of Al-Hasakah, Deir Ezzor, and Raqqa, where the largest Syrian oil and gas fields are located.

The actions carried out by the United States constitute state piracy with the aim of plundering Syria's oil resources and depriving the Syrians of their own resources amid a harsh economic situation caused largely by the US occupiers.