Exclusive: U.S. pilots provide first account of tense Syrian jet encounter

USA Today 20 hours ago 

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A MILITARY BASE IN SOUTHWEST ASIA — Two American fighter pilots who intercepted Syrian combat jets over northern Syria last week said they came within 2,000 feet of the planes without the Syrians aware they were being shadowed. The tense encounter occurred after Syrian jets dropped bombs near a U.S. adviser team with Kurdish forces in northern Syria. The Pentagon warned Syria that American forces were authorized to take action to defend its troops. Syrian aircraft haven’t dropped bombs in the area since then, and the U.S. military is no longer operating continuous combat patrols there. “I followed him around for all three of his loops,” one of the American pilots, a 38-year-old Air Force major, ...