A top U.S. general accused Russia’s military of increasing tensions in Syria after observing a “significant” increase in aggressive military flights over the country as tensions between Washington and Moscow remain high over the downed U.S. drone that was flying over the Black Sea.

Gen. Erik Kurilla, the commander of U.S. Central Command, addressed the Senate Armed Services Committee last week. He said Russian military jets—that are fully armed—fly over U.S. bases in the country in an “attempt to try and be provocative.” He said such maneuvers are beneath a “professional air force.”

Kurilla was asked if this was completely out of the ordinary and he clarified that it has just been an increase since the beginning of the month.

“It’s not new,” he said.   

Kurilla reportedly traveled to north-east Syria last week to meet with American troops “and visit sites critical to the ongoing effort to ensure the defeat of ISIS,” CENCOM said in a statement obtained by the Middle East Monitor. 

TRENDPOST: It is important to note that the U.S. is operating in Syria as an illegal occupying force, while the Russians have been invited by Syria’s President Bashar Assad to operate in the country.

Turkey, a NATO ally, and Russia, called on Washington to withdraw its remaining military forces from Syria last year.

There are about 900 U.S. troops currently stationed in Syria to defeat the threat of ISIS. The warmongers in the House of Representatives recently voted in opposition to a bill that would call for the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops stationed in Syria’s oil-rich region under the guise of fighting ISIS. (See “WARMONGERS IN CONGRESS VOTE TO KEEP U.S. FORCES IN SYRIA’S FOREVER WAR” 14 Mar 2023 and “U.S. SAYS IT KILLED NEARLY 700 SUSPECTED ISIS MEMBERS IN IRAQ, SYRIA IN 2022” 10 Jan 2023.) 

Robert Ford, the former Obama ambassador to Syria, called on American troops to come home in a letter to Congress. He said American forces have achieved success in degrading ISIS, but they have little chance of stopping recruitment, and, in the meantime, “have been regularly subject to attack by pro-Iranian militias allied to the Assad government.”

Assad, in the meantime, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week and promised to work more closely with Moscow. He showed a willingness to let Russia expand its military presence in the country. He said Syria would be happy to house Russia’s hypersonic arsenal. 

“The bases are supposed to be capable of having a deterrent or counterbalancing effect, these must be armed with the best weapons, it is natural and logical. Whether it would be hypersonic missiles or any other more advanced weapons now and in the future, the principle is, of course, the same as I said,” Assad said.

PUBLISHER’S NOTE: As Gerald Celente has been stating since America’s illegal invasion of Iraq, based on lies that Saddam Hussain had weapons of mass destruction, “Do you think America would invade if Iraq’s major export was broccoli?” The same with Syria and Libya… it’s all about stealing their oil and U.S. hegemony. 

The United States has no right to be in Syria, a foreign nation that is no threat and has made no threats to America. 

It also should be noted the initial reason given for U.S. military presence in Syria was not fighting ISIS, but rather President Barack Obama, The Nobel Piece of Crap Prize winner, stating on 20 March 2013 at a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that Assad “must go.”

Drone Incident 

Kurilla’s comments came days after the U.S. accused Russia of downing a Reaper drone operating over the Black Sea.

The U.S. announced that an MQ-9 Reaper drone that was conducting “routine operations” in international airspace over the Black Sea was clipped by a Russian fighter jet and crashed in the Black Sea.

The U.S. and Russia both expressed ambitions to retrieve the submerged drone. John Kirby, the National Security Council spokesperson, told CNN: the U.S. does not want the drone “to fall into anyone’s hands other than ours.”

Nikolai Patrushev, the Russian Security Council secretary, told reporters on Wednesday: “I don’t know whether we’ll be able to retrieve it or not but it has to be done. And we will certainly work on it.”

Ivan Konovalov, a military expert and political analyst, told Sputnik that the drone was a sophisticated and very powerful aircraft of a strategic class that was flying with its transponders turned off in the direction of the Russian border.

How valuable the drone would be for Russia to retrieve is unclear, Mark F. Cancian, a senior adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) International Security Program, told The Trends Journal.

He called the Reaper a “moderately valuable” for the Russians, who would likely reverse-engineer the aircraft to learn its vulnerabilities to develop new defense systems and countermeasures.

Russia has disputed the Pentagon’s claim that the jet struck the drone and said the drone stalled after executing a dangerous maneuver. Sergey Shoigu, the defense minister, said the cause of the incident was “the drone’s incursion into a zone, which the Russian military had declared off-limits due to the ongoing special military operation in Ukraine,” RT, the Russian news outlet, reported.

TRENDPOST: Syria’s Assad evidently agrees with The Trends Journal that WWIII is underway. 

“I believe that World War III is underway, but it differs in its form,” he told Russian outlet Sputnik. “What I mean is that world wars used to be conventional in the past. The armies of several states were fighting against each other. This is also true when it comes to the current situation, but because of modern weaponry, especially nuclear, it is different from conventional war. That’s why wars are now moving toward becoming proxy wars. That’s why Zelensky is now fighting a war on behalf of the West, using, of course, its army of Nazis. The same goes for terrorists, they are the armies operating on behalf of the West in Syria and other regions.”