The Defense Department is pushing back on a media report that the U.S. has stopped flying manned aircraft over northwest Syria in support of indigenous forces.
Bloomberg View reported on Thursday that Russia has sent new advanced air defense systems to Syria, which had been used to target U.S. planes over a key area over northwestern part of the country known as "Box 4."
"The Pentagon halted all manned flights, although U.S. drones are still flying in the area," the story says. "Russia then began bombing the rebels the U.S. had been supporting."
But defense officials told Military Times that the story is filled with inaccuracies, such as its headline, "New Russian Air Defenses in Syria Keep U.S. Grounded."
"This is inaccurate as the Coalition is not grounded and continues to conduct airstrikes anywhere Daesh is present in Syria — to include northwest Syria," said Maj. Tim Smith, a spokesman for U.S. Air Forces Central Command.
Smith also said the U.S. is continuing to provide air support to indigenous forces in Syria, which are fighting the Islamic State group.
"The presence of Russian-supplied advanced air defense systems in Syria systems will not deter us from achieving our objectives," Smith said in an email to Military Times.
That means that the U.S. is still flying airstrikes over northwest Syria using both manned and unmanned aircraft, he said.
"An airstrike is an airstrike and the Coalition continues to conduct counter-Daesh airstrikes throughout Syria," Smith said. "Whether we employ manned or unmanned aircraft to conduct a strike ultimately leads to the same effect for Daesh: death and destruction at the end of a precision guided munition."
Smith especially took particular exception to this sentence in the Bloomberg View story: "At this crucial moment, the U.S. is not only decreasing pressure, but acquiescing to Russian pressure."
That is "absolutely not true" because the U.S.-led coalition continues to put pressure on the Islamic State group through airstrikes in support of anti-Islamic State group fighters on the ground, Smith said.
"Unhelpful actions by Russia and the Syrian regime will not stop Coalition counter-Daesh operations in Syria, nor will such actions push the Coalition away from specific regions in Syria where Daesh is operating," he said.
Josh Rogin, one of the two reporters who wrote the Bloomberg View story, said he stands by his reporting and his administration sources say the story is accurate.
"No one has denied the basic facts of the article, namely that manned flights in Box 4 were halted in response to Russian deployment of an SA-17 [radar] inside Syria," Rogin told Military Times.