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US Lieutenant General Paul E. Funk, who was represented earlier this year in the northern city of Manbij, Syria, is the commander of the coalition forces in Iraq and Syria. (Susannah George / AP)
US marines on Friday conducted an air assault exercise in southern Syria to warn Russian and other military forces to stay away from a US base.
The exercise, in which a company-sized unit took part, took place in a context of tensions between Russia and the United States in the Syrian combat zone. The Trump administration warned Russia and the Syrian government against a planned offensive The province of Idlib, in north-west Syria, the largest remaining pocket of rebel fighters who have tried and failed in the last seven years to oust President Bashar al-Assad.
In support of Operation Idlib, Russia has deployed a large naval presence in the eastern Mediterranean, with weapons capable of crossing Syria.
The Marine exercise was held near the US Tanf garrison, along the Syrian-Iraqi border near Jordan, around which Americans have long claimed that a 35-mile deconflict zone was forbidden to others. The result was a Russian notification and an American rejection of a plan to enter the area to prosecute "terrorists".
"The United States does not seek to fight the Russians, the Syrian government or groups that could provide support to Syria in the Syrian civil war," said Lt. Col. Earl Brown, spokesman for the US Central Command . . "However, the United States will not hesitate to use the necessary and proportionate force to defend US forces, coalition or partners."
[Trump agrees to an indefinite military effort in Syria, U.S. officials say]
The garrison served as a launching pad for US anti-Islamic operations and a US Special Operations Forces training center for Syrian fighters. The area is also straddling an important transport line between Tehran and Damascus, and control of the area has long been a goal of the Syrian government and its Russian and Iranian allies.
More and more skirmishes have occurred near and inside the area, including a Monday in which several Iranian and Iranian fighters were killed in an airstrike. A spokesman for the US military said the base had "received fire from unknown forces" but "did not retaliate". Israel, which has conducted strikes against Iranian forces in Syria, has not made any direct comment on Monday's incident.
Russia has repeatedly accused the United States of hosting ISIS forces inside the area, which the Americans vehemently denied by suggesting that Russia and its allies in Syria seek an excuse to attack the region.
"The coalition partners are in the At Tanf zone of deconfliction for the fight against the destruction of the Islamic State," Brown said. "Any claim that the United States is harboring or assisting the Islamic State is clearly inaccurate." ISIS is an acronym for Islamic State.
Describing an unusual series of events that led to the exercise, Brown said that Russia, using a dedicated communication line to avoid the accidental conflicts between US and Russian forces in Syria, had notified the lieutenant General Paul E. Funk II of the coalition forces in Iraq and Syria, "that they intended to enter the At Tanf zone of deconfliction to pursue terrorists".
This was followed Thursday, said Brown, by an unprecedented written note addressed to Funk by his Russian counterpart: "They would do precision strikes."
"The United States needs no assistance in our efforts to destroy ISIL in the At Tanf zone of deconfliction," Brown said, "and we have advised the Russians to stay clear."
Russia and other pro-government forces, he said, should respect deconflict agreements.
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