WASHINGTON — Twice this week, airborne U.S. fighter jets from the Incirlik Airbase in Turkey had to divert to avoid getting too close to Russian jets that hadn鈥檛 informed the U.S. they were in Syrian airspace.
鈥淲e have taken measures to reroute aircraft as necessary, when there鈥檚 an air issue where we might be getting close,鈥� said Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis.
According to U.S. military sources, the Russian planes closed to within 20 miles, so close that the U.S. pilots identified them via on-board cameras.
Russia鈥檚 military activity has created a difficult operational environment for the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
In addition to little or no warning about the operations of its fighter jets, Russian officials said Wednesday they launched missiles from ships in the Caspian Sea.
The missiles traveled almost a thousand miles over Iran and Iraq to strike targets in Raqqa and Aleppo provinces in the north and Idlib province in the northwest.
There is no evidence that U.S. coalition forces were warned or that permission to use Iraq鈥檚 airspace was granted.
The Russian Defense ministry has gone to great length on social media to point out that it鈥檚 focused on ISIL targets. The tweet below was posted at 2:30 p.m. EST, Oct. 7.
Col.Gen.Viktor Bondarev:Russian air group performed 112 strikes against facilities in Syria since September 30 by October 7
鈥� 袦懈薪芯斜芯褉芯薪褘 袪芯褋褋懈懈 (@mod_russia)
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The tweet is part of what鈥檚 been a steady Russian government social media campaign to update the public on certain military activities going on inside Syria.
The U.S. military said it鈥檚 seeing something more.
鈥淲here we have seen Russia strike and Russia conduct its operations in Syria so far have been predominantly focused on areas of regime operations and not ISIL,鈥� Davis said.
Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter, while visiting U.S. troops in Spain and Italy Wednesday, said, 鈥渢his is something we continue to think is evidence of a misguided strategy.鈥�
Not only have the U.S. and its coalition partners noticed and complained about the strikes on Syrian opposition forces, but those very opposition forces have begun to mobilize against Russian forces as well.
听In a joint statement obtained by Reuters, more than 40 groups — with as many as 20,000 members who want to depose Syrian President Bashar al-Assad — called for unity of purpose. They also made an appeal for money from wealthy Arab states and donors to fight what it called 鈥淩ussian and Iranian occupation鈥� of Syria.
Among the items on their wish-list were anti-aircraft weapons.
鈥淚f they get effective anti-aircraft weapons and start shooting down Russian planes then that would be really serious,鈥� said Richard Barett, senior vice president at the Soufan Group. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know what Russia would do in that case.鈥�
The former coordinator of the United Nations Al Qaida-Taliban Monitoring Group, Barrett surmises hostile action toward a Russian fighter jet could introduce a specter similar to the embarrassment the Soviet military went through in Afghanistan in the 1980s Soviet-Afghan War.
鈥淚t [Russia] would probably increase its bombing campaign, and probably also increase the number of mercenaries who are going there already and then you get dragged into a ground war, like in Afghanistan in the 1980s that doesn鈥檛 have a natural end.鈥�
