A Russian fighter jet attacked a US MQ-9 Reaper drone and damaged it with flares

An American MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle was damaged in Syria. It was attacked by a Russian fighter jet.

Here's What We Know

The incident took place on the night of 23 July. A Russian fighter jet flew dangerously close to the US MQ-9 Reaper drone, which was carrying out a counter-terrorism mission against the Islamic State group.

According to U.S. Air Forces Central, the drone was attacked by the Russian aircraft. The fighter jet fired several flares at the MQ-9 Reaper.

One of the missiles hit the drone and seriously damaged the propeller. This was stated by the commander Lieutenant General Alex Grynkewich (Alex Grynkewich). He called the actions of the Russian aircraft a blatant disregard for flight safety.

The MQ-9 Reaper was not destroyed. The crew, who operated the drone remotely, was able to maintain control of it and successfully returned the drone back to base.

Note that recently three MQ-9 Reaper drones were able to eliminate ISIS leader Usamah al-Muhajir. Before that, Russian Su-35 fighter jets had been hunting the US drones for several hours .

Updated: it turned out that the MQ-9 was attacked by a Su-35 aircraft. This was reported by a US official to Air & Space Forces Magazine. In addition, the command published a video of the incident.

Source: AFCENT