A U.S. official told CNN Thursday that Russian fighter jets
turned off their transponders as they flew into Syria in an apparent attempt to
avoid detection. The official said the fighters flew very close to a transport
plane that had its transponder on and functioning.
U.S. satellites
rapidly saw that the aircraft were there, according to the official.
The assessment
over the weekend was that the fighter jets were on their way. The same official
said the Russians have begun flying drones around the coastal city of Latakia.
With no ISIS
fighters in the area, the move raises serious questions about the Russians'
intentions with their military buildup, which the U.S. has questioned the
purpose of and watched with wariness. The action points to a higher likelihood
that the Russian plan is to prop up Syrian President Bashar al-Assad rather
than fight the terror group.
The U.S. has its own effort underway to defeat ISIS but has also
said that Assad must go.
Asked about what
the U.S. can do about the situation, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter told CNN
at a press conference Thursday that "it's a matter of seeing what the
Russians do."
Carter said he
hopes the Russians will fight ISIS, "but if it's a matter of pouring
gasoline on the civil war in Syria, that is certainly not productive from our
point of view."
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