WASHINGTON (Dispatches) -- Russia warned the U.S. military earlier this week that it was going to conduct airstrikes against terrorists allied with the U.S. in southeastern Syria, according to two U.S. defense officials cited by CNN.
That led the U.S. to quickly warn the terrorists to move their positions and also ensure that no U.S. forces were nearby, the officials told the American broadcaster.
CNN said the Russian airstrikes appear highly calculated, coming when tensions are high between Washington and Moscow over the war in Ukraine and the Pentagon is trying to ensure tensions don’t escalate with Russian forces, including in Syria, where the two sides have operated in proximity to each other for several years.
The initial U.S. assessment is the Russian forces were likely ordered to notify the U.S. ahead of time and conduct the airstrikes knowing they would not hit U.S. troops and that the Americans would warn their allies, the officials said.
But the Russians still likely achieved their goal of “sending a message” to the U.S. that they can strike without being worried about retaliation, one official said, CNN reported.
The notification by Russia came through the long-standing bilateral deconfliction line that has operated for several years, where each side notifies the other of military operations and movements that risk a miscalculation if each side is not aware of the other’s activities.
The incident happened in the vicinity of Al-Tanf garrison in southeastern Syria, where U.S. and terrorists have long operated. The strikes were conducted against positions where the U.S.-backed Maghawir al-Thawra terrorists were operating.
The U.S. officials said the Russians claimed the group had conducted a roadside bomb attack against Russian forces. The U.S. believes that did not happen and the Russians simply used it as a reason to conduct airstrikes.
Last month, the foreign intelligence service of the Russian Federation (SVR RF) said U.S. forces

in Al-Tanf were providing military support to Daesh terrorists and training them for field operations in Ukraine.
According to the agency, approximately 500 Daesh terrorists and militants from the Caucasus and Central Asian countries were undergoing training at the camp to carry out acts of sabotage and terrorist attacks against units of the Russian armed forces, both inside Syria and in Russia.
A number of captured Daesh terrorists have already confessed to close cooperation with U.S. military forces stationed at Al-Tanf base.
In their confessions broadcast on Syria’s state-run television network in May 2020, several terrorists revealed that they had been instructed by American forces to target Syrian government troops.
Syria’s official news agency SANA reported last April that a number of Daesh terrorists were also being trained at the U.S. military base in Al-Shaddadi town of Syria’s northeastern province of Hasakah on how to fire rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), shoulder-launched rockets as well as anti-armor and anti-aircraft missiles.
The terrorists, it said, were about to be transferred shortly to Jazira in the eastern Syrian province of Dayr al-Zawr and the Syrian Desert, northeast of Damascus, to attack positions of Syrian army forces, vital facilities and popular gatherings.