The White House announced that a Russian military convoy that included armored vehicles, personnel carriers and attack helicopters intercepted two American armored vehicles in northeastern Syria on Wednesday and hit one of them, in a confrontation that resulted in the injury of two American soldiers.
While the US presidency did not clarify the number of wounded soldiers or the severity of their injuries, videos apparently taken by the Russian military personnel themselves, and posted on Twitter, showed Russian troop carriers and helicopters surrounding the two American vehicles and then forcing them to leave the area near the city of Derek (Al-Malikiyah) in Hasaka governorate in the far northeast of Syria.
And it appeared in the video excerpts that the Russian and American vehicles collided with each other, while in another excerpt, one of the Russian military helicopters appeared flying at a very low altitude above the American military.
The White House National Security Council said in a statement that a Russian vehicle hit an American mine-proof vehicle, "causing the vehicle's crew to be injured."
• On August 24, another confrontation occurred between US and Russian forces near Malikiyah in Syria
• Russian helicopters flew over the US convoy
• A long video of the incident as US forces MRAP try to disrupt a Russian Typhoon patrol pic.twitter.com/Dur7VatCmX
Defense Arab (@defensearab) August 26, 2020
The statement did not clarify the number of crew members who were wounded or the severity of their injuries, and the US Department of Defense (the Pentagon) did not issue any comment in this regard.
The statement quoted National Security Council spokesman John Oliot as saying that the two American vehicles were operating a security patrol of the anti-ISIS coalition. He added that the patrol left the area to calm the situation.
The spokesman stressed that such unprofessional and unsafe actions violate the Avoidance Protocols that the United States and Russia committed to in December 2019.
He added that the coalition and the United States do not seek any escalation with any military forces, but US forces always reserve the right to defend themselves in the face of any hostilities.
A Russian helicopter prevents US forces from crossing a checkpoint, which led to the injury of a number of American soldiers in Syria pic.twitter.com/KIZowTrT41
- Mustafa AL Dulaimi (@ Mustafa6D9lai7) August 26, 2020
There are rarely clashes between Russian and American forces in Syria, and earlier this year, another video clip showed friction between American and Russian forces on a road in Syria.
The US military does not generally comment on casualties, but a paratrooper was killed last month in a vehicle accident in eastern Syria.
There are still about 500 US troops in northern Syria after a sharp reduction in the number of forces that were initially present to drive out Islamic State.