Pentagon probe into fears of Russian ‘energy weapon’ attacks on soldiers in Syria reportedly finds symptoms down to food poisoning

When US Marines stationed in Syria mysteriously fell ill, American officials were quick to suspect a shadowy Russian energy weapon was behind it. However, a probe by military chiefs has now revealed the culprit was dodgy rations.

News site Politico revealed in a report last week that Washington’s Defense Department had been investigating a number of incidents across the world where it believed its personnel had been exposed to so-called ‘directed energy’ attacks, with Russia held up as the likely culprit. Pentagon officials were said to have written to lawmakers and carried out in-person briefings with representatives in Congress about the potential threat.

While little is known about experimental energy weapons, which theoretically include those using lasers, microwaves and particle beams, there have been numerous claims that they are being utilized against Americans overseas. In 2017, then-US President Donald Trump accused Cuba of targeting its embassy personnel with electromagnetic forces, after diplomatic staff complained of nausea, headaches and hearing strange noises. The health complaints have now come to be known as ‘Havana Syndrome’.

Despite that, a former national security advisor, who remains unnamed, told Politico that in at least one incident that was looked into, investigators had uncovered troops posted abroad were facing a far less high-tech problem.

According to reports, elite marines on a remote base in Syria reportedly came down with flu-like symptoms after a Russian helicopter flew past the camp, leaving commanders fearing that the two events could be evidence of a nefarious plan by Moscow to give soldiers a runny nose.

Surprisingly though, a former official told CNN that the real cause “was quickly traced.” Instead of secretive energy weapons, the marines “had bad food…and no one else on the base had the same symptoms.”

That hasn’t stopped American politicians like Senator Marco Rubio expressing concern over the situation. In an interview, he warned of alleged Russian aggression in the Middle East, and added that “we’ve all seen some of these attacks on diplomatic facilities. I don’t want to link the two, but again, I just can’t comment on any of that.”

Phil Coyle, the former director of the Office of Operational Test and Evaluation at the Pentagon, told Politico he was more skeptical. “It seems far-fetched to me – harder to do by far than just killing American soldiers with bombs or bullets,” the expert claimed. “All we know is these soldiers got sick, and we don’t know whether it’s food poisoning or something else that made them sick, so we can’t blame the Russians.”

Directed energy weapons have generally not been seen on the battlefield, and there is little concrete evidence of any nation using them in practice. However, in 2018, a Russian defense contractor revealed that microwave-based technology was being tested as part of prototypes for new fighter jets. Earlier this month, President Vladimir Putin also announced that Moscow was investing substantial sums on high-tech laser weapons, designed to blast missiles and warplanes out of the air.

American arms manufacturers are also exploring the potential of similar armaments. Lockheed Martin, for example, tells potential customers that it has “researched, designed, developed, and captured electromagnetic energy and elevated its power” for the past 30 years, “to create innovative Directed Energy solutions.”

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