Under a Minute over Eastern Syria

The crew had spent hours over eastern Syria following trucks and scanning compounds for Task Force Chosin. At 0239Z it "observed an unidentified aerial phenomenon". The report gives the event two lines. The UAP appeared near a grid reference in killbox KP 9, and "the UAP occured in less than a minute, with the UAP moving from N to S." The aircraft was at 19,359 feet and 116 knots.

What is on the record

The document is a US Central Command mission report, DOW-UAP-D16, filed by the 89th Attack Squadron under Operation Inherent Resolve. It was declassified on 8 October 2025 and published in the Department of War's first PURSUE release on 8 May 2026. The sortie left Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan and flew for almost 21 hours. Most of its narrative is routine surveillance: a convoy followed to a possible shooting range, a truck carrying what might be an artillery piece, rocket launchers parked at the Deir ez-Zor airfield.

The UAP entry records no shape, colour, size or count. Its partly redacted grid places the first sighting near Al-Mayadin in Deir ez-Zor Governorate, about 15 km west of the aircraft's own logged position. The aircraft type and callsign are withheld. So are its weapons.

The paired video is DOW-UAP-PR022. It runs 14 seconds with the infrared picture on the left and the electro-optical one on the right. AARO's description is one sentence: "At the five second mark, the video depicts an object moving from right to left across the top right quarter of the sensor field-of-view." The clip's opening frame shows only the ground under watch.

Neither the report nor AARO offers an explanation. The release lists the case as unresolved.

Why it sits where it does

L4 · OFFICIAL RECORD — a released government record names who saw it. The observers are an aircrew identified by squadron, with every name withheld. No independent testimony sits beside the report in the archive, and the tier measures sourcing rather than truth. What crossed the sensor's view is not resolved here.