WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military on Sunday shot down a Syrian Air Force fighter jet that bombed local forces aligned with the Americans in the fight against Islamic State militants, an action that appeared to mark a new escalation of the conflict.

The U.S. had not shot down a Syrian regime aircraft before Sunday’s confrontation, said Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman. While the U.S. has said since it began recruiting, training and advising what it calls moderate Syrian opposition forces to fight IS that it would protect them from potential Syrian government retribution, this was the first time it resorted to engaging in air-to-air combat to make good on that promise.

The U.S.-led coalition headquarters in Iraq said in a written statement that a U.S. F-18 Super Hornet shot down a Syrian government SU-22 after it dropped bombs near the U.S. partner forces, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces.

The shootdown was near Tabqa, a Syrian town in an area that has been a weekslong focus of fighting against IS militants by the SDF as they surround the city of Raqqa and attempt to retake it from IS.

The U.S. military statement said it acted in “collective self defense” of its partner forces and that the U.S. did not seek a fight with the Syrian government or its Russian supporters.

According to a statement from the Pentagon, pro-Syrian regime forces attacked the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces-held town of Ja’Din, south of Tabqah in northern Syria, wounding a number of SDF fighters and driving the SDF from the town.

Coalition aircraft conducted a show of force and stopped the initial pro-regime advance toward the town, the Pentagon said. Following the pro-Syrian forces attack, the coalition called its Russian counterparts “to de-escalate the situation and stop the firing,” according to the statement.

A few hours later, the Syrian SU-22 dropped bombs near SDF fighters and, “in collective self-defense of coalition-partnered forces,” was immediately shot down by a U.S. F/A-18E Super Hornet, the Pentagon said.

“The coalition’s mission is to defeat ISIS in Iraq and Syria,” the Pentagon said, using an abbreviation for the Islamic State group. “The coalition does not seek to fight Syrian regime, Russian or pro-regime forces partnered with them, but will not hesitate to defend coalition or partner forces from any threat. ”

U.S. forces tangled earlier this month with Syria-allied aircraft in the region. On June 8, U.S. officials reported that a drone likely connected to Iranian-supported Hezbollah forces fired on U.S.-backed troops and was shot down by an American fighter jet. The incident took place in southern Syria near a base where the U.S.-led coalition was training Syrian rebels fighting the Islamic State group.

An Army spokesman at the Pentagon said at the time that the drone carried more weapons and was considered a direct threat, prompting the shootdown.

Associated Press writer Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report. </s> WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. military says it has shot down a Syrian Air Force fighter jet that bombed local forces aligned with the Americans in the fight against Islamic State militants.

The U.S.-led coalition headquarters in Iraq said in a written statement Sunday that a U.S. F-18 Super Hornet shot down a Syrian government SU-22 after it dropped bombs near the U.S. partner forces, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces.

This appears to mark a new escalation of the conflict. The shootdown was near the Syrian town of Tabqa.

The U.S. military statement says it acted in "collective self defense" of its partner forces and that the U.S. does not seek a fight with the Syrian government or its Russian supporters. </s> WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military shot down a Syrian Air Force fighter jet Sunday that bombed local forces aligned with the Americans in the fight against Islamic State militants, an action that appeared to mark a new escalation of the conflict.

The U.S. had not shot down a Syrian regime aircraft before Sunday’s confrontation, said Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman. While the U.S. has said since it began recruiting, training and advising what it calls moderate Syrian opposition forces to fight IS that it would protect them from potential Syrian government retribution, this was the first time it resorted to engaging in air-to-air combat to make good on that promise.

The U.S.-led coalition headquarters in Iraq said in a written statement that a U.S. F-18 Super Hornet shot down a Syrian government SU-22 after it dropped bombs near the U.S. partner forces, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces.

The shootdown was near Tabqa, a Syrian town in an area that has been a weekslong focus of fighting against IS militants by the SDF as they surround the city of Raqqa and attempt to retake it from IS.

The U.S. military statement said it acted in “collective self defense” of its partner forces and that the U.S. did not seek a fight with the Syrian government or its Russian supporters.

According to a statement from the Pentagon, pro-Syrian regime forces attacked the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces-held town of Ja’Din, south of Tabqah in northern Syria, wounding a number of SDF fighters and driving the SDF from the town.

Coalition aircraft conducted a show of force and stopped the initial pro-regime advance toward the town, the Pentagon said. Following the pro-Syrian forces attack, the coalition called its Russian counterparts “to de-escalate the situation and stop the firing,” according to the statement.

A few hours later, the Syrian SU-22 dropped bombs near SDF fighters and, “in collective self-defense of coalition-partnered forces,” was immediately shot down by a U.S. F/A-18E Super Hornet, the Pentagon said.

“The coalition’s mission is to defeat ISIS in Iraq and Syria,” the Pentagon said, using an abbreviation for the Islamic State group. “The coalition does not seek to fight Syrian regime, Russian or pro-regime forces partnered with them, but will not hesitate to defend coalition or partner forces from any threat. ”

U.S. forces tangled earlier this month with Syria-allied aircraft in the region. On June 8, U.S. officials reported that a drone likely connected to Iranian-supported Hezbollah forces fired on U.S.-backed troops and was shot down by an American fighter jet. The incident took place in southern Syria near a base where the U.S.-led coalition was training Syrian rebels fighting the Islamic State group.

An Army spokesman at the Pentagon said at the time that the drone carried more weapons and was considered a direct threat, prompting the shootdown.

Associated Press writer Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report. </s> WASHINGTON — The U.S. military on Sunday shot down a Syrian Air Force fighter jet that bombed local forces aligned with the Americans in the fight against Islamic State militants, an action that appeared to mark a new escalation of the conflict.

The U.S. had not shot down a Syrian regime aircraft before Sunday’s confrontation, said Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman. While the U.S. has said since it began recruiting, training and advising what it calls moderate Syrian opposition forces to fight IS that it would protect them from potential Syrian government retribution, this was the first time it resorted to engaging in air-to-air combat to make good on that promise.

The U.S.-led coalition headquarters in Iraq said in a written statement that a U.S. F-18 Super Hornet shot down a Syrian government SU-22 after it dropped bombs near the U.S. partner forces, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces. The shootdown was near the Syrian town of Tabqa.

The U.S. military statement said it acted in “collective self defense” of its partner forces and that the U.S. did not seek a fight with the Syrian government or its Russian supporters.

According to a statement from the Pentagon, pro-Syrian regime forces attacked the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces-held town of Ja’Din, south of Tabqah in northern Syria, wounding a number of SDF fighters and driving the SDF from the town.

 Coalition aircraft conducted a show of force and stopped the initial pro-regime advance toward the town, the Pentagon said. Following the pro-Syrian forces attack, the coalition called its Russian counterparts “to de-escalate the situation and stop the firing,” according to the statement.

A few hours later, the Syrian SU-22 dropped bombs near SDF fighters and, “in collective self-defense of coalition-partnered forces,” was immediately shot down by a U.S. F/A-18E Super Hornet, the Pentagon said.

“The coalition’s mission is to defeat ISIS in Iraq and Syria,” the Pentagon said, using an abbreviation for the Islamic State group. “The coalition does not seek to fight Syrian regime, Russian or pro-regime forces partnered with them, but will not hesitate to defend coalition or partner forces from any threat. ”

U.S. forces tangled earlier this month with Syria-allied aircraft in the region. On June 8, U.S. officials reported that a drone likely connected to Iranian-supported Hezbollah forces fired on U.S.-backed troops and was shot down by an American fighter jet. The incident took place in southern Syria near a base where the U.S.-led coalition was training Syrian rebels fighting the Islamic State group.

An Army spokesman at the Pentagon said at the time that the drone carried more weapons and was considered a direct threat, prompting the shootdown.

Associated Press writer Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report. </s> A U.S. Navy F/A-18E Super Hornet shot down a Syrian warplane on Sunday that posed a threat to U.S.-backed forces operating on the ground, marking a first in the six-year-old conflict in that country, according to the U.S. military.

The strike occurred after a Syrian regime SU-22 ground attack jet dropped bombs near U.S.-backed Syrian Defense Force fighters south of Tabqah.

The aircraft “was immediately shot down by a U.S. F/A-18E Super Hornet,” the U.S. coalition said in a statement.

“The Coalition’s mission is to defeat ISIS in Iraq and Syria,” the statement said. “The Coalition does not seek to fight Syrian regime, Russian, or pro-regime forces partnered with them, but will not hesitate to defend Coalition or partner forces from any threat.”

Earlier in the day, pro-Syrian regime forces attacked the Syrian Democratic Forces, who were held in the town of Ja’Din, south of Tabqah, it said.

The U.S. attempted to defuse to situation, calling into a special “deconfliction” line established with Moscow to reduce potential miscalculations. Coalition aircraft conducted a show of force, but the situation continued to escalate, culminating in the downing of the Syrian war plane.

The confrontation could ratchet up tensions between the U.S. and Russia, which backs the Assad regime.

The shootdown was believed to be the first U.S. air-to-air kill involving manned aircraft since the Kosovo war in 1999, when an Air Force F-16 shot down a Serbian MiG-29.

Earlier this month, the U.S. also shot down a drone suspected of supporting Iranian-backed forces in Syria, where the battlefield has gown increasing complex and congested.

Overall, the U.S. has stepped up operations in Syria as partner forces seek to push ISIS out of its stronghold in Raqqa. The USS George H.W. Bush is again launching airstrikes from the eastern Mediterranean, where it is closer to Raqqa and other Islamic State targets in Syria as allied forces’ fight against the terrorist group escalates.

Navy Hornets, such as the one that shot down the Syrian fighter Sunday, routinely fly from the carrier.

The Bush pounded ISIS from the Persian Gulf for more than two months, then on June 5 it returned to the eastern Mediterranean where it had launched air assaults in early March. It has launched more than 800 sorties and 300 airstrikes — which often involve multiple jet fighters — since the strike group deployed for Operation Inherent Resolve in January, according to Navy data.

Some analysts said the Bush’s move to the Mediterranean gives the offensive in Raqqa a boost.

“If we’re going after Raqqa, flight distances and times are shorter from the Med than from the Gulf,” said Jim Holmes, strategy professor at the Navy War College in Newport, R.I.

Fighter pilots can fly more missions into Syria, refuel less in midair and not worry about traveling through unauthorized airspace as they would in the Persian Gulf, Holmes said.

The Bush is part of an amplifying battle against ISIS as warplanes released more munitions aimed at the terrorist group in May than any previous month since the war began in 2014. Aircraft dropped 4,374 bombs and missiles on ISIS targets in May, the first time the coalition surpassed 4,000 airborne munitions against ISIS in a single month, according to a Pentagon report released last week. </s> The U.S. military has shot down a Syrian Air Force fighter jet that bombed local forces aligned with the Americans in the fight against Islamic State militants. The action appears to mark a new escalation of the conflict.

A Pentagon spokesman says the U.S. had not shot down a Syrian regime aircraft before Sunday's confrontation.

The U.S. has long said that it would protect what it calls moderate Syrian opposition forces. This is the first time it resorted to engaging in air-to-air combat to make good on that promise.

The U.S.-led coalition headquarters in Iraq says a U.S. F-18 Super Hornet shot down a Syrian government SU-22 after it dropped bombs near the U.S. partner forces. The shootdown was near the Syrian town of Tabqa. </s> IRBIL, Iraq — A U.S. warplane shot down a Syrian jet on Sunday near the Islamic State-held city of Raqqah, officials said, marking the latest escalation between the U.S. and Syria since the blood-soaked civil war began six years ago.

The Pentagon said the U.S.-led coalition took the unprecedented move after a Syrian Su-22 attack aircraft bombed its allies who were fighting Islamic State militants south of the city of Tabqah, roughly 25 miles west of Raqqah.

A U.S.-backed alliance of Kurdish and Arab militia fighters known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, is involved in a large-scale offensive on Raqqah, Islamic State’s self-declared capital in Syria. Last month, the militia fighters clawed back Tabqah from Islamic State, but the Islamic State still holds sway in large swaths of the desert areas to the south.

About 4:30 p.m., Syrian forces loyal to President Bashar Assad attacked U.S. ground partners in the recently recaptured town of Jadin, south of Tabqah, according to a U.S. military timeline. The assault drove the militia fighters from the town. But the U.S. scrambled aircraft to roar over the battlefield in “a show of force” that halted the pro-government forces’ advance. </s> MOSCOW: Warplanes from the US-led coalition operating over Syrian airspace west of the Euphrates River will be treated as potential targets, Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Monday, a day after the US military shot down a Syrian air force jet.

Russia, Syria’s main ally, also said it is suspending a cooperative pact with the US aimed at maintaining airspace safety in Syria, BBC reported. The latest spat came a day after an American F18E Super Hornet fighter jet downed on Sunday a Syrian SU-22 which was targeting areas held by a US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-Arab coalition militia fighting the Islamic State in the city of Raqqa.

“Any aircraft, including planes and drones belonging to the international coalition operating west of the Euphrates river, will be tracked by Russian anti-aircraft forces in the sky and on the ground and treated as targets,” the ministry said. – </s> Smoke billows from buildings in the northern Syrian city of Raqqa on Sunday during an offensive by US-backed fighters to retake the Daesh terror group bastion (AFP photo)

BEIRUT — Russia on Monday warned it would track US-led coalition aircraft in central Syria as "targets" and halted an incident-prevention hotline with Washington after US forces downed

Moscow has only once before suspended the hotline, which was established in October 2015 to prevent conflict between the different forces operating in Syrian airspace.

The shootdown incident and Russia's response further complicate Syria's six-year war and come as the US-led coalition and allied fighters battle to oust the Daesh terror group from its Syrian bastion Raqqa.

Analysts say neither Washington nor President Bashar Assad's regime appear to be seeking further confrontation, but warn that the risks are high in Syria's increasingly crowded battlefields.

Russia’s foreign ministry accused Washington of failing to use the hotline before downing the plane near Raqqa, and called for a “careful investigation by the US command” into the incident.

“Any flying objects, including planes and drones of the international coalition, discovered west of the Euphrates River will be tracked as aerial targets by Russia’s air defences on and above ground,” it warned.

The Syrian jet was shot down on Sunday evening after regime forces engaged fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance battling with US support against Daesh, in an area close to Raqqa.

The American F/A-18E Super Hornet shot down the Syrian SU-22 around 7:00pm as it “dropped bombs near SDF fighters” south of the town of Tabaqa, the coalition said in a statement.

It said that several hours earlier, regime forces had attacked the SDF in another town near Tabaqa, wounding several and driving the SDF from the town.

The coalition said the Syrian warplane had been shot down “in accordance with rules of engagement and in collective self-defence of coalition partnered forces”.

Syria’s army disputed the account, saying its plane was hit while “conducting a mission against the terrorist Daesh group”.

It warned of “the grave consequences of this flagrant aggression”.

Russia’s deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov called it a “continuation of America’s line to disregard the norms of international law”, adding: “What is this if not an act of aggression?”

The incident was the latest skirmish between the US-led coalition and regime forces in the increasingly tense and crowded space in Syria’s north and east.

The coalition has for months backed SDF forces in their bid to capture Raqqa, an operation in which the regime has not been involved.

The SDF entered Raqqa for the first time earlier this month and now holds four neighbourhoods in the east and west of the city.

Damascus has instead turned its focus further east, to the largely Daesh-held oil-rich province of Deir Ezzor, where government forces are besieged in part of the provincial capital.

It is advancing towards the region on three fronts, south of Raqqa, through the badia desert region in central Syria, and along Syria’s eastern border.

But the advances have created conflict with the US-led coalition, particularly along the Syrian border, where US and other foreign forces are training an anti-Daesh force at the Tanf garrison.

In recent weeks, the coalition has fired on pro-regime ground forces approaching the garrison and shot down a pro-regime armed drone.

The coalition describes these incidents as “force protection” measures and says its primary focus remains targeting Daesh.

Outside of coalition operations, US forces have only once directly targeted the regime, when Washington launched a barrage of strikes in April against an airbase it said was the launchpad for an alleged chemical attack that killed dozens of civilians.

Sam Heller, a Syria expert at The Century Foundation think tank, said the regime was provoking confrontations, but neither side appeared to want a major escalation.

“I think that it was just that the regime engaged in a provocation and then a lower-rung US commander responded in self-defence,” he said of Sunday’s incident.

“The regime got too close and it got burned.”

He said the provocations by Syria’s government and its allies were a potentially risky strategy.

“It doesn’t look like anyone currently intends to deliberately escalate further, but when you’ve got these little skirmishes... the risk is that you can end up in an escalation by accident.”

On Monday morning, the area where the regime and SDF fighters clashed was quiet, and the US-backed force was continuing to battle Daesh inside Raqqa, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.

Government forces meanwhile seized the town of Rusafa, south of Raqqa, a key stop on its path to Deir Ezzor and located near provincial oil and gas fields, the monitor said.

Syria’s war began in March 2011 with anti-government protests, but has since spiralled into a complex and bloody conflict that has killed more than 320,000 people.

Syria’s rebels are now on the backfoot after regime advances with support from allies Russia and Iran.

On Sunday, Tehran for the first time fired missiles from its territory against Daesh positions in Deir Ezzor.

It said the missiles were “in retaliation” for a June 7 attack on the parliament complex and shrine of revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, which killed 17 people and was claimed by Daesh.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also announced Monday that the next round of Syria peace talks in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana will be held on July 10.

The meeting is set to coincide with a fresh round of UN-sponsored Syria peace talks that will also begin in Geneva the same day.
A U.S. F/A-18E Super Hornet shoots down a Syrian Arab Air Force warplane after it had dropped bombs near Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters in Raqqa Governorate, according to United States Central Command. The Syrian Armed Forces says its jet was on a combat mission against ISIL.