Last week I was seeing weird online rumors that somehow the Russians had bombed a US airbase in Syria.

Needless to say, that is not what happened.

Turns out that the US supported a Syrian anti-government group. It had positions near a US base in Syria.

The Russians called the US up and said that they were going to be near the US base in order to bomb that group. The US told the group that the Russians were coming to bomb them. The group split. (As the Russian knew was going to happen.) The Russians bombed the empty positions.

One of the better accounts:

“Russia warned US it was going to conduct airstrikes on fighters in Syria”
cnn.com