Tales
of the New Cold War: US leaning Syria. Europe leaning Moscow
Stephen
F. Cohen @nyu @princeton
...A U.S. F-15 fighter jet shot down an Iranian-made drone over southern Syria on Tuesday, a U.S. defense official said, marking the second time in a week that the U.S. military has taken a pro-Syrian government aircraft out of the sky.
The
official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the
incident had yet to be made public, said the drone was in the area
where a U.S. plane shot down the same type of unmanned aircraft —
an Iranian Shahed 129 — this month. The drone, roughly the size of
a U.S. Predator unmanned aerial vehicle, was armed and within range
of striking U.S.-led coalition troops and their Syrian allies,
according to the official, who said the strike was in “self-defense.”
CNN
was first to report the incident.
[U.S.
risks further battles as it steps deeper into Syrian quagmire]
In
an emailed statement, the Pentagon said the drone was shot down near
an “established combat outpost” northeast of the Tanf Iraq-Syria
border crossing. Tanf and the surrounding area — a desert-scape of
scattered dwellings and scrub brush — is seen by Iran as an
integral overland supply route that connects Tehran to Syria, Iraq
and Lebanon.
The
shoot-down is the latest escalation between the United States and
forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. In just over a
month, U.S. forces have struck Iranian-backed Shiite militias in
southern Syria three times, and on Sunday a U.S. F/A-18 shot down a
Syrian air force Su-22 jet southwest of the Islamic State’s de
facto capital of Raqqa.
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