Last Thursday, an American F-15 military jet flew within 1,000 meters (1,100 yards) of an Iranian passenger plane over Syrian air space.
The close encounter, verified by video of screaming passengers, forced the pilot of the commercial airline to take emergency measures to avoid contact.
Iran officially protested the incident to the United Nations, calling it a clear violation of international law. Mohammad Eslami, Iran’s Acting Minister of Roads and Urban Development, stated, “How could a passenger plane flying along a commercial route according to aviation protocols be attacked and threatened by some country’s fighter jets?”
The plane eventually landed in Beirut where five passengers were treated for injuries.
Ensure the Safety?
The American response came from Captain Bill Urban, speaking for U.S. Central Command. Captain Urban said, “An F-15 on a routine air mission… conducted a standard visual inspection of a Mahan Air passenger airliner at a safe distance of approximately 1,000 meters. The visual inspection occurred to ensure the safety of coalition personnel at Tanf garrison.”
Captain Urban did not explain how the commercial airline was threatening the safety of U.S. troops stationed on the ground.
Note: Tanf garrison is a U.S. military base in Syria located near the border of both Iraq and Jordan. The outpost saw a large increase in U.S. forces in 2016, as America led an intervention into the Syrian civil war in this area, which includes the strategically important Baghdad-Damascus highway.)
TRENDPOST: Tensions in the Middle East are heating up. Over the past few weeks, huge fires and explosions burned several Iranian ships, a petroleum plant, an aluminum factory, and nuclear facilities for which Iran blames the U.S. and Israel.
As the global economy sinks deeper into debt and destruction, military escalations will intensify.
Civil wars will erupt as desperate citizens take to the streets in protests of lack of basic living standards, government corruption, violence, and rising crime.
As we have forecast, civil wars will cross borders and spread into regional wars in the Middle East, Africa, and South America… and America.
