Recent Russian airstrikes and other operations in Syria raise
alarms amid high tensions over Ukraine
Russian jets at an air show last year. Russia carried out airstrikes at the al-Tanf garrison Wednesday, where U.S. troops have a train-and-advise mission with local fighters.
Photo: sergei
ilnitsky/Shutterstock
By Gordon
Lubold and Michael R. Gordon
June 17, 2022 6:23 pm ET
AL-UDEID AIR BASE,
Qatar—Russian forces have conducted a series of operations against the U.S.-led
coalition in Syria this month, including one this week at a strategically
located base in the southern part of the country, U.S. military officials said.
The Russian actions have
alarmed U.S. military officials, who are concerned that a miscalculation might
escalate into an unintended conflict between the U.S. and Russian forces in
Syria. Tensions between the two countries are already high following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February and American efforts to arm the Ukraine military to defeat Russian forces there.
Russia is persevering in
its war in Ukraine despite setbacks, sanctions and condemnation from many
countries. WSJ’s Ann Simmons explains why deep cultural and political ties, its
strategic location and potential resources have made the former Soviet Republic
a target for Moscow. Photo composite: Eve Hartley The Wall Street Journal
Interactive Edition
On Wednesday, Russia
carried out airstrikes at the al-Tanf garrison, near Syria’s border with Jordan
in southeast Syria, where U.S. troops have a train-and-advise mission with
local fighters to prevent a resurgence of Islamic State.
Russia notified the U.S.
through a communications line set up years ago that it was conducting the
airstrikes in response to an alleged attack against Syrian government forces
that the Russians defend that may have resulted in injuries and destroyed a
vehicle.
Soon after, Russian jet
fighters, including two Su-35s and one Su-24, were observed traversing the area
over al-Tanf before striking a combat outpost at the garrison, a U.S. military
official said.
The advance notice of the
strike suggested to U.S. officials that the Russian military wasn’t actively
targeting American troops but was harassing the U.S. mission in Syria—a tactic
that Russian forces have previously used, resulting in some close calls over
the years.
‘Russia’s recent behavior
has been provocative and escalatory,’ Centcom chief Gen. Erik Kurilla, pictured
in 2021, said in a statement.
U.S. military forces
weren’t in the vicinity of the base at the time of Wednesday’s strikes, which
were earlier reported by CNN, and there were no American or coalition
casualties as a result of the strike. But the operation punctuated what a U.S.
military official characterized as a “significant increase in provocation” this
month.
The Russian Embassy in
Washington didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Also this week, the Russians
deployed two Su-34 jet fighters to a site where the U.S. was conducting a raid
in northeast Syria to apprehend an Islamic State bomb maker. The jet fighters pulled back after the
U.S. scrambled its own F-16 fighters to warn the Russian jets to leave the
area, U.S. military officials said.
U.S. military officials
declined to provide specifics of any of the other incidents they said have
occurred in the past couple of weeks.
The U.S. seeks to avoid
conflict with Russia in Syria, the top U.S. general in the region said.
“We seek to avoid miscalculation or a set of
actions that could lead to unnecessary conflict: that remains our goal,” Army
Gen. Erik Kurilla, the head of U.S. Central Command, said in a statement.
“However, Russia’s recent behavior has been provocative and escalatory.”
As many as 200 American
troops have been based at the al-Tanf garrison as part of the U.S. campaign to
mentor local partners to combat Islamic State militants. There are a total of
about 900 American troops in Syria, according to military officials. In addition
to al-Tanf, U.S. troops train and advise Syrian Kurdish forces in the eastern
sector of the country.
Although the so-called
caliphate of Islamic State was defeated in 2019, the U.S. mission there is to train
coalition forces to help prevent the group from rising again.
U.S. and Russian forces
have been operating in Syria for years. A communications line, used daily, has
helped the two sides avoid direct conflict in Syria, though there have been
some tensions, including over the al-Tanf garrison. The base is located near a
major highway that runs from Iraq to Syria and which Bashar al-Assad’s government,
the Russians and Iranian forces have long wanted U.S. troops to abandon.
In 2016, Russian aircraft
bombed the al-Tanf base. No U.S. personnel were at the base at the time, but
several Syrian fighters were among the casualties. The episode occurred after
two U.S. Navy F-18s that had been on patrol near the base left to refuel. The
Russians later said they had intended to strike terrorists.
In 2017, a Russian
commander, Col. Gen. Vladimir Zarudnitsky demanded the U.S. withdraw its
personnel from the al-Tanf garrison within 48 hours. The U.S. commander of the
counter-Islamic State campaign at the time, Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, refused
and after a few tense moments the Russian general dropped his demand.
The spate of incidents
comes as the Biden administration is trying to provide billions in weaponry to
Ukraine without broadening the conflict. Avoiding a direct clash with Russia
has been a top U.S. priority.
The most serious
U.S.-Russian confrontation in Syria in recent years didn’t involve Russian
troops. It came in February 2018 when combatants with the Wagner Group, a
private Russian mercenary organization with close ties to the Kremlin, advanced
into eastern Syria and fired on U.S. troops.
After those Russian
fighters ignored the American military’s warning to leave, the U.S. mounted an intensive
counterattack and killed “a couple hundred Russians,” Mike Pompeo said in 2018
during his confirmation hearing to be secretary of state. The Russian military
said it had nothing to do with the episode.
Write
to Gordon Lubold at Gordon.Lubold@wsj.com and Michael R. Gordon at michael.gordon@wsj.com
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