The exercise, involving a company-size unit, came amid rising US-Russia tensions across the Syrian battlespace. The Trump administration has warned both Russia and the Assad regime against a planned offensive in Idlib province in northwest Syria, the largest remaining pocket of opposition fighters who have tried over the past seven years to oust Bashar al-Assad.
In support of the Idlib operation, Russia has deployed a significant naval presence in the eastern Mediterranean, with weaponry capable of reaching across Syria.
The Marine exercise took place near the US garrison at Tanf, along the Syrian-Iraqi border near Jordan, around which the Americans have long declared a 35-mile deconfliction zone off-limits to others. It followed a Russian notification, and US rejection, of a plan to enter the zone to pursue “terrorists.”
“The United States does not seek to fight the Russians, the Assad regime or any groups that may be providing support to Syria in the Syrian war,” Lt. Col. Earl Brown, a US Central Command spokesman, said in a statement. “However, the United States will not hesitate to use necessary and proportionate force to defend US, coalition or partner forces.”
The garrison has served as a launchpad for US anti-Islamic State operations and a US Special Operations Forces training facility for Syrian fighters aiding in that effort. The zone also lies astride a major transport line between Tehran and Damascus, and control of the area has long been a goal of the Assad regime and its Russian and Iranian allies.
Increasingly frequent skirmishes have occurred near and inside the zone, including one Monday in which several Iranian and Iranian-backed militias were reportedly killed in an airstrike. A US military spokesman said the base had “received fire from unknown forces” but “did not fire back.” Israel, which has conducted strikes against Iranian militias in Syria, made no direct comment on the Monday incident.
“Coalition partners are in the At Tanf deconfliction zone for the fight to destroy ISIS,” Brown said. “Any claim that the US is harboring or assisting ISIS is grossly inaccurate.”
Outlining an unusual series of events that led up to the exercise, Brown said that Russia, using a communication line dedicated to avoiding accidental conflict between US and Russian forces in Syria, had notified US Lt. Gen. Paul E. Funk II, the commander of coalition forces in Iraq and Syria, that “they intended to enter the At Tanf deconfliction zone to pursue terrorists.”
That was followed Thursday, Brown said, by an unprecedented written note to Funk from his Russian counterpart “that they would make precision strikes.”
“The US does not require any assistance in our efforts to destroy ISIS in the At Tanf deconfliction zone,” Brown said, “and we advised the Russians to remain clear.”
Russia and other pro-Assad militias, he said, were expected to abide by deconfliction agreements.
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