"The accounts you are seeing are a mix of sensationalized misreporting and propaganda," the spokesperson said. "Coalition partners, as a necessary part of the defeat Daesh effort, have installed systems in northeastern Syria to provide vital protection and guidance to Coalition aircraft supporting the defeat-Daesh mission. Systems like these are only focused on the D-ISIS mission."
READ MORE: UNSC Must Address US Missile Defense Plans in Syria, If Confirmed – Lawmaker
The US-led coalition spokesperson was responding to allegations made by a former commander of the Deir ez-Zor Military Assembly, Fayez Esmer, who said in an interview with Yeni Safak newspaper on Tuesday that the planned missile defense shield was part of Washington's plans to sow "chaos" in the Middle East.
On Tuesday, media reported, citing former Commander of Syria's Deir ez-Zor Military Assembly Fayez Esmer, that the Pentagon was getting ready to set a missile defense shield in Syria’s northeastern Al Hasakah and Rmelan.
The US-led coalition of more than 70 countries is conducting military operations against Daesh in Syria and Iraq. The coalition's operations in Iraq are conducted in cooperation with the Iraqi government, but those in Syria are not authorized by the government of President Bashar Assad or the United Nations Security Council.
*Daesh (also known as ISIS/ISIL/IS) is a terrorist group banned in Russia