MOSCOW. July 12 (Interfax) - The Russian military has reported nine airspace violations by Western coalition planes in Syria over the past day.
"Nine violations of the Syrian airspace by two duos of F-16 fighter jets, a duo of Taifun fighter jets, a duo of Rafale fighter jets and an MC-12 aircraft of the coalition have been recorded in the Al-Tanf area in the past 24 hours," deputy head of the Russian Center for Reconciliation of Opposing Sides in Syria Oleg Gurinov said.
"Nine violations of the deconfliction mechanism involving flights of unmanned aerial vehicles of the so-called international antiterrorist coalition, including eight violations observed in the area closed to aircraft for the period of the Russian-Syrian exercise in northern Syria, were recorded over the past day," he said.
In all, 55 non-deconfliction flights of coalition UAVs, ten cases of coalition drones dangerously approaching Russian aircraft, and four cases of impact from coalition UAVs' guidance systems, which led to automatic activation of defenses of the Russian Aerospace Forces' aircraft, have been observed during the Russian-Syrian exercise, Gurinov said.
The exercise held on July 5-10 practiced strikes on airborne targets, tactical bombardments, deployment of airborne targets and simulated launches of air-to-air guided missiles and checked the capacity of the contingent's air defense to repel airstrikes, he said.