The Pentagon and London’s Ministry of Defence are furious over two Russian bombings of U.S. special operations outposts last month, according to a report.
Russian aircraft bombed a secret U.S.-British special operations garrisons in Jordan on June 16 and again on July 12, in an effort to persuade the Obama administration to agree with closer cooperation over Syrian airspace, the report says.
The At-Tanf garrison, used by U.S. and British special operations forces as a staging ground with rebel allies, is an unofficial buffer zone to prevent the Islamic State from spreading into Jordan.
“I’m not gonna discuss the specifics of U.S. or other coalition SOF [special operations forces] operations, so I’m not gonna confirm that one way or the other,” U.S. military spokesman Col. Chris Garver told reporters Friday morning.
During the June 16 attack, Russian military planes dropped several cluster bombs on the garrison. Luckily, all special operations forces had left just 24 hours before the Russian attack.
After the Russian strike, U.S. military officials at Central Command’s air operations center in Qatar alerted their Russian counterparts that they just bombed a U.S. facility. However, Moscow launched a second wave of attacks just 90 minutes later.
Initially, Moscow told the Pentagon they struck the garrison because they thought it was an Islamic State compound. U.S. officials rejected that excuse, citing specific ways the base was fortified that only the U.S. and allies use.
Russia pivoted, saying the Jordanians approved the strike. However, again, that was inaccurate, as the Jordanians “never gave Moscow a green light.”
In a third attempt to justify bombing a U.S. compound, the Russian military said the U.S. was “not in a position to call off the strike because officers with U.S. Central Command didn’t provide Moscow with the precise coordinates for the garrison.”
As distrust grew between the U.S. and Moscow, U.S. military officials told the Russian military to altogether avoid the Jordanian boarder. Despite the warning, Russia conducted another airstrike July 12 on a CIA-backed compound south of the garrison, killing 200 civilians.
The risk to U.S. and British forces stiffened the opposition to Russia’s actions. Instead of forcefully rebuking the Russian attacks, the U.S. State Department reportedly pursued a compromise to avoid a potential proxy war.
Secretary of State John Kerry reached a provisional agreement with Moscow last week that allows the two adversaries to join forces against the Nusra Front, a Syrian al Qaeda affiliate. As part of the compromise, the U.S. will backtrack Russian isolation in return for Moscow halting airstrikes on U.S.-backed rebels and keeping the Syrian air force in check.
While the provisional deal will allow the U.S. to target Nusra in areas previously off limits, critics say the White House gave in to Russian bullying and that the U.S. needs to confront Moscow more squarely.
The possibility of an agreement is close, but so far no progress has been made. “As for the negotiations with the Russians in regard to operations inside Syria, I can tell you that today we are doing exactly what we’ve been doing,” Garver said. “We’re not cooperating in any way other than communicating through the one channel for safety of flight through the memorandum of agreement that we have.
“And there’s no cooperation with Russian forces at this time,” he added.
Since the September 2015 Russian intervention in Syria, the Russian air force has conducted hundreds of airstrikes against U.S.-backed rebels fighting Assad.
A Russian embassy spokesman said, “In reality, the only objective Russia pursues in Syria is fighting terrorism. And we believe that better coordination of Russian and American efforts would contribute to effective pursuit of this objective, as well as to a diplomatic solution of the Syrian crisis.”
