Speaking to Russian reporters, US Ambassador James Jeffrey, the special representative for the Syrian War, was asked to comment on incidents in which US troops killed large numbers of Russian military contractors working for the Syrian government.

Jeffrey refused to offer details of that incident, but revealed that US and Russian forces have gotten into around a dozen clashes inside Syria over the course of the war, sometimes with direct exchanges of gunfire.

Jeffrey further insisted that all the US troops in Syria are “legitimately” there to fight against ISIS, and that all the fighting against Russia was in keeping with the US “right of self-defense.” Russia has not commented on the engagements.

Perhaps the most curious aspect of all of this is that, other than the incident in which the US killed all of the Russian contractors, these direct confrontations have largely gone unreported. Jeffrey refused to provide details, but it seems like major fighting between US and Russian troops on the ground would not go unnoticed in the press.