As different supposedly friendly warplanes, helicopter, drones, missiles and artillery continued their presence over Syrian airspace, war experts and military commanders are worrying about an accidental clash. The powder keg is just minutes away from blasting because different entities with their own vested interests are making individual moves inn Syrian soil.

The Mirror reports that US-led forces acknowledged that they have staged 24 attacks against ISIS this Saturday; while the Russians owned up to hitting 55 Islamic State targets. But there were reports coming from Syrian opposition fighters that some of Moscow’s airstrikes have also been targeting rebels who are not associated with ISIS at all. The US-trained militants who are fighting President Assad’s regime are also identified as one of those beleaguered by Russian artilleries.

As the experts and professional military people worry about this escalating situation, a military expert warned during an interview with The Mirror:

Rationalizing such a complex airspace is not possible – like getting your mind round a Rubik’s Cube that moves around at Mach 1.5, then adding a dozen more.

Given the amount of military traffic in the air there is a real worry a plane will be shot down in a catastrophic misunderstanding of intent. It means we could be seconds from a sudden escalation taking us to the very brink of war.

Reports from the battlefield confirm that US planes have to abandon targets and maneuver away to avoid colliding with Russian jets. Lt Gen Charles Brown, the commander of the American air campaign in Syria, corroborated that there was a close call when US and Russian aircraft were just about 30 seconds away from catastrophic impact.

There is also a concern about Russia’s covert objective to expand influence somewhere else in the Middle East particularly in the Iraqi and Iranian lands. And Iran has already allowed them to use their airspace.

The scenario is startling, here we have two powerful rival alliances seeking for power everywhere else in the Middle East, a situation quite similar to what had happen to the First World War. War historians can definitely attest to that and we all knew what had happen then.