Russian jet fighters and drones are harassing U.S. forces in Syria with increasing frequency, according to American officials, creating new risks of a deadly miscalculation between the two military superpowers.
Over the past two months, armed Russian warplanes have repeatedly violated longstanding agreements with the U.S. by flying dangerously close to American jet fighters over Syria and over U.S. forces working in the country, the officials said late Monday.
“It’s a ripe situation for us to see some sort of miscalculation,” said Air Force Lt. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, who oversees U.S. military operations in the skies above Syria and 20 other nations in the Middle East and Southeast Asia as head of the U.S. Air Forces Central Command.
“It signals a breakdown in professionalism that I have never seen out of the Russian Air Force,” he said.