US forces block Russian military patrol in northern Syria
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that US forces blocked a six-vehicle Russian military convoy on the highway between the northern Syrian cities of Aleppo and Hasakah known as M4 on Saturday. The Al-Hasakah Media Centre also reported the incident, adding that the Russian vehicles made up a patrol detail that was heading towards the town of Amude, in the northern countryside outside Hasakah.
It’s not the first such incident between soldiers from the two world powers in the area since Russian forces and pro-Syrian government forces entered northeast Syria in an agreement with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) following a Turkish offensive and the pullout of US forces near the Syrian-Iraqi border in October 2019.
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The agreement and US pullout from areas such as Manbij, Ain al-Issa, and Kobani paved the way for the Russian army to take control of abandoned US bases and set up new ones in areas across northeast Syria near SDF-held territory.
According to a Pentagon inspector general’s report published in early February, at least 300 Russian military police are deployed in northeastern Syria, “occupying the towns of Kobani, Raqqah, Tal Tamr, Amuda and Ayn Issa – areas previously occupied by U.S. forces.”
There are also 600 to 700 US troops still present in Hasakah and Deir al-Zor provinces to protect oil infrastructure and support the SDF in operations against the Islamic State.
As a result, several incidents have erupted in January and February between Russian and US forces in areas where both are present and exact lines of control have not been clearly delineated.
On Feb. 19, US army vehicles pushed a Russian police vehicle from the road in eastern Qamishli, a video published by Kurdish activists on social media purported to show.
#US army vehicle pushes #Russia police vehicle off the road, today, eastern Qamishli NE #Syria. pic.twitter.com/X5RNPyqafL
— Mohammad (@ibrashino) February 19, 2020
One week earlier, an alleged Syrian regime militiaman was killed by US forces after civilians and other militiamen stopped a US military patrol in the countryside surrounding Qamishli.
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According to an SOHR report, Russian forces arrived a standoff began and that, before that on Feb. 3, tensions played out on the ground between the US army and Russian forces, which had begun military movements near the M4 highway.
Ambassador James Jeffrey, US Special Representative for Syria Engagement and Special Envoy for the Global Coalition to Defeat the Islamic State, told reporters on Feb. 5 that the “vast majority of these incidents occur there, and so to some degree, they represent the Russians trying to move into the far northeast where they do have the town – the city of Qamishli, where there are Russian and Syrian forces.”
“But we have deconfliction agreements and we find them violating them to one or another degree in there.”
Nicholas A. Heras, Middle East Portfolio Manager at the Institute for the Study of War, told Kurdistan 24 that the Russian patrols are a “non-kinetic means” for Russia to attempt to disrupt U.S.-led Coalition lines of supply and reinforcement into and out of areas of northeast Syria controlled by the SDF.
“The Russian military’s tactic is also designed to reduce U.S. influence in the SDF-held areas by showing the local population that Russia is now also a primary actor in this nominally U.S.-led Coalition administered region of Syria.”
Editing by John J. Catherine