Russia has protested to the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group against the "provocative actions" of US forces in Syria.

TASS news agency on Friday quoted a senior Russian official as saying that the provocative acts took place in the northeastern province of Hasakah.

The United States has been deploying troops in Syria for nearly eight years to fight Islamic State, and hundreds of its members are staying in camps located in arid areas that are not under the full control of the coalition or the Syrian regime's army.

Russia, which along with Turkey conducts joint patrols in northern Syria, has agreed to set up special zones where the coalition could operate.

But Russian Admiral Oleg Gorinov, head of Russia's Reconciliation Center in Syria, told TASS news agency that U.S. forces had been spotted twice in areas other than those agreed.

"We have observed provocative actions by units of the US armed forces in Hasakah province," he said. The Russian side lodged a protest with the coalition," he said, without giving details on its timing.


Russia has intervened since 2015 in the war in Syria to tip the balance of power in favor of President Bashar al-Assad, and since then Moscow has expanded its military presence in Syria and established a permanent air base alongside another naval base.

Extend tasks

On Friday, the US military announced the extension of the mission of the aircraft carrier "George H.W. Bush" and its group of accompanying ships, which are currently in the European Command area of operations, and the carrier and the group of ships include more than 5,<> American troops.

Rocket attacks and attack drones targeted three U.S. bases in Syria last week, killing one U.S. contractor and wounding another and six U.S. soldiers.

U.S. forces responded with air strikes and exchanges of fire, which Syrian sources said killed 3 Syrian soldiers, 11 fighters in pro-government factions and 5 non-Syrian militants.


Washington said on Monday it would not back down from its nearly 8-year deployment in Syria, where it is battling Islamic State remnants.

It is noteworthy that US forces were deployed for the first time in Syria during the campaign of the administration of former US President Barack Obama, which targeted the Islamic State, in partnership with the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces, which are led and dominated by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG).

About 900 U.S. troops are deployed in Syria, mostly in the east of the country. According to the US military, before the recent series of attacks in Syria, US forces were subjected to about 78 attacks from Iranian-backed groups since the beginning of 2021.