Four U.S. officials were injured in a collision between a car and a Russian military police patrol in northeastern Syria, U.S. officials said.
The incident points to tensions around the countries operating nearby in one of the world’s most complex war zones – and one that some analysts say risks a potential escalation between Washington and Moscow.
According to a statement from National Security Council spokesman John Ullyot at about 10 a.m. Syrian time (3 p.m. ET) near Dayrick, in northeastern Syria, a Russian military police car and a U.S. light tactical car known as an M- collided ATV in collision. ,
In a statement on Wednesday, Ullyot said the Russian car “hit” the American car. He called the maneuver an “unsafe and unprofessional” breach of an agreement on how the countries should treat each other in Syria.
When they returned to their base, four U.S. counterparts were diagnosed with mild concussion-like symptoms after the “bump” between cars, according to two U.S. officials, spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to enter the car. media to be called.
The Department of Defense “coordinated a response with the White House and State Department,” Pentagon spokeswoman Jessica McNulty told NBC News.
The Russians blamed the Americans for “an attempt to block the Russian patrol” despite being “informed in advance about the passage of the Russian military police column.”
This explanation was given by Valery Gerasimov, Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Military, in a call with his American counterpart, Army General Mark Milley, said a statement from the Russian Defense Ministry. After the collision, the Russian statement said her car “took the necessary measures to prevent the incident and carry out its task further.”
The U.S. reading of that call said both sides “agreed to keep the specific details of their conversation private.”
Download the NBC News app for news and politics
Video referring to the incident was widely shared on social media, although has not been verified by NBC News.
It is not the first time U.S. and Russian troops have run-ins in Syria, whose civil war has killed more than 400,000 people, destroyed cities and displaced more than 10 million people since its outbreak in 2011. The US accuses Russia of increasingly violating “de-conflict protocols” – guidelines on how they should live in Syria without confrontation – that they agreed on last year.
Russia joined the fight in 2015 to help Syrian President Bashar Assad in the war against a patchwork of rebel groups. Russian President Vladimir Putin helped turn the war in Assad’s favor while maintaining a dominant foothold in the country.
Only about 500 U.S. troops remain in Syria, which U.S. officials say are there to fight ISIS. But President Donald Trump has suggested there are “only for the oil” that is rich in the northeast of the country.
Some experts believe that the potential for escalation is not worth what they say these targets are for the American troops still in the country.
“Bumper cars playing with Russians in the Levant do not serve a major U.S. national interest,” Gil Barndollar, a senior fellow at the Defense Priorities think tank, said in an email. “Neither counter-terrorism raids nor confiscation of Syrian oil is a valid reason to maintain this mission.”
