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The U.S. military has released footage showing a Russian fighter jet damaging an American drone in Syria after flying "dangerously close" to it.

The Russian jet was "harassing" the drone and "deploying flares from a position directly overhead," the U.S. Air Forces Central said in a statement on Tuesday, leaving just meters between the unmanned aerial vehicle and the piloted aircraft.

It is the latest in a string of military encounters between Russian and U.S. aircraft in the skies above Syria, as tensions mount over the war in Ukraine. Several times this month, the U.S. has said Russian jets have acted in an "unsafe and unprofessional manner" against U.S. assets in Syria.