this footage shows American Russian and
Syrian flags all at the same checkpoint
in northeastern Syria it reveals both
the complexity of the situation in this
part of Syria as well as how dangerous
things can get this confrontation
eventually led to a shootout between
pro-assad Syrian fighters in the u.s.
convoy so how did this happen
let's break it down the US has patrolled
the turkish-syrian border since 2017 to
keep tensions down between various
factions in the region namely turkey a
NATO partner and the Kurdish militias
that are helping the u.s. fight Isis in
October 2019 President Donald Trump
suddenly announced he was pulling US
troops out of northeastern Syria opening
the door for Turkey to send its own
troops in that complicated things
Turkey's invasion paved the way for
Russian patrols in the area and
strengthened the Syrian regime's
presence suddenly the US wasn't the only
country with patrols in the neighborhood
both Russia and Turkey started
conducting their own patrols in the same
region after working out a deal with the
Kurdish militias the u.s. ultimately
backtracked on its plans for a full
withdrawal and instead pulled back to
patrolling a much smaller oil-rich part
of the region in the east essentially
giving up its influence in much of the
region to Russia Turkey and the Syrian
regime the overlapping patrols have led
to events like those of mid-february
when the u.s. convoy was stopped by
pro-assad forces at a local checkpoint
outside of Qamishli you can watch the
scene unfold in various videos uploaded
around the time of the shooting
this Kurdistan 24 reporter was in the
middle of a live broadcast when the
shooting began right as two American
soldiers and a translator walked toward
the scene the reporter and her cameraman
then quickly run down the road and take
cover
[Applause]
in the main video showing the shootout
shared by syrian state media there is at
least four syrian gunmen visible
shooting at the u.s. convoy meanwhile a
Russian patrol is parked nearby on the
side of the road and in another video
two other men with guns can be seen
watching from a garage while another
attempts to pour what appears to be
gasoline on an American mr AP that is
already on fire video also shows Russian
soldiers speaking to a group of people
at the checkpoint some of whom have guns
one Russian soldier can be heard telling
the people to chant against the
Americans the same soldier is seen in
another video send people to move away
from the US convoy
well this was the most violent incident
of its kind so far it's just one of the
many recent examples of US forces having
clothes covering tations with Russian
and Syrian forces we see some American
troops they don't give the permission
for the Russian troops to cruise it to
the oil areas for this video news II
analyzed video and images posted online
to find at least eight confrontations
between the US and Russian convoys
across northeastern Syria all of those
just in the first two months of 2020
most of these incidents involve
traveling on the m4 highway or near it a
strategic international road that runs
throughout the length of northeastern
Syria
one incident that occurred after the
shootout involved a u.s. MATV
running a Russian vehicle off the road a
u.s. military spokesman said Russia had
violated deconfliction rules in this
case something that the spokesman says
Russia does on a routine basis this is
not the first time that US and Russia
have butted heads in Syria in 2018 the
u.s. killed 200 to 300 fighters a mix of
Syrian regime forces and Russian
mercenaries that attacked a US position
and in 2017 u.s. jets intercepted two
Russian jets after they crossed over the
deconfliction line in Syria separating
US and Russian activity at the time
these more recent incidents were closer
than and they show that the u.s. is
ability to dictate the terms on the
ground in Syria is slipping and it
reflects just how crowded the u.s.
position in Syria has become