American and Russian troops usually have buffer between each other to protect against an ‘accident’ that could just COULD escalate into something MUCH BIGGER….
In Syria THAT is not the case and THAT could be dangerous...
Reports of this…
Russian troops elbowing the Americans might be a ploy to get this in the media and have American military assets withdrawn from the area’s with Trump as President and Esper as the Defense Sec.
Russia is intensifying a pressure campaign on U.S. military forces in northeastern Syria following the American withdrawal from much of that area ahead of a Turkish cross-border offensive last fall, American military and diplomatic officials say.
Russian military personnel have increasingly had run-ins with U.S. troops on highways in the region, breaking agreements between the two countries to steer clear of each other. Russian helicopters are flying closer to American troops. And on Wednesday, a U.S.-led convoy returned fire after it came under attack near a checkpoint manned by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, who are backed by Russia.
American officials say these actions by Russian personnel and their Syrian allies are devised to present a constant set of challenges, probes and encroachments to slowly create new facts on the ground and make the U.S. military presence there — to protect oil fields and help fight the remnants of the Islamic State — more tenuous.
“These are not daily occurrences but they have been increasing in number, and thus is troubling,” James F. Jeffrey, the top American diplomat overseeing Syria issues, told reporters last week.
The confrontations risk escalating to a significant hostile encounter between Washington and Moscow in the country’s northeast, even as Russian-backed Syrian government troops have stepped up an offensive against rebel enclaves in Idlib in Syria’s northwest.
“We know they’re pressing,” Vice Adm. Tim Szymanski, a Navy SEAL who is deputy head of the military’s Special Operations Command, said in an interview. He echoed the assessment of other government and independent analysts who say the Russians will continue to seek an advantage in the northeast, even in areas patrolled by U.S. and Syrian Kurdish allies and where Russian personnel are not supposed to go…..
image…Credit…Associated Press