The incident is the latest in a series of recent clashes between Russian warplanes and US drones over Syria.
The United States said a Russian fighter jet shot down an American drone in Syria over the weekend, with Washington again accusing Moscow of “behaving unprofessionally” in the skies over the country.
In a statement on Tuesday, US Air Forces Central said a Russian aircraft “flew dangerously close” to a US MQ-9 drone early Sunday morning, “harassing” the drone and “setting off flares from an overhead position”.
“One of the Russian flares hit the US MQ-9, severely damaging its propeller. Fortunately, the MQ-9 crew was able to maintain flight and safely return the aircraft to its home base,” said Lt. Gen. Alex Grinkiewicz, chief of US Air Forces Central.
“We call on Russian forces in Syria to immediately stop this reckless, unprovoked and unprofessional behavior.”
The incident is the latest in a series of clashes between Russian warplanes and US drones in Syria.
On July 6, the US Air Force released a video of one such encounter, showing a Russian SU-35 fighter getting close with an American drone.
The footage shows the Russian pilot positioning his aircraft in front of the MQ-9 Reaper and turning on the afterburner, dramatically increasing speed and air pressure, making the drone difficult to maneuver, the Air Force said in comments accompanying the video.
Citing unnamed US officials, the Associated Press news agency also reported last week that a Russian jet flew dangerously close to US surveillance aircraft over Syria on July 16, “endangering the lives of four American crew members”.
Tensions between the US and Russia have risen since Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year.
In March, a diplomatic row also briefly erupted when the United States claimed Russian jets were responsible for downing a Reaper drone, worth more than $30 million and loaded with sensitive U.S. spying technology, operating over the Black Sea.
Moscow has denied responsibility for the downing of its warplanes but video footage released by the US military showed Russian planes engaged in maneuvers to intercept the drone’s flight path.
In a statement on Tuesday, US Air Force Central said the American drone was hit by a Russian flare “on a defeat-ISIS mission”, referring to the ISIL (ISIS) armed group that previously controlled large areas of Syria and Iraq.
About 900 US troops are deployed to Syria to work with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces against ISIL. Russia is the main supporter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
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