MOSCOW, July 28. /TASS/. Two US-led coalition’s MQ-9 Reaper drones dangerously approached Russian fighter jets in Syria, 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 Sunday.
"On July 27, two coalition’s MQ-9 Reaper reconnaissance combat unmanned aerial vehicles dangerously approached Su-24 planes of the Russian aerospace forces making a planned flight over Syria. The incident took place at an altitude of around 6,500 meters near the settlement of al-Sukhne 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 two pairs of the coalition’s F-15 and two pairs of A-10 Thunderbolt attack bombers violated Syria’s airspace in the al-Tanf area, across which international air routes run, eight times during the day.
Apart from that, in his words, nine 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, one shelling attack by the Jabhat al-Nusra (outlawed in Russia) terrorist group on positions of Syrian government troops was reported in the Aleppo governorate in the Idlib de-escalation zone during the day. One Syrian soldier was killed as a result of sniper fire by terrorists near the settlement of Kafer Halab.