The New York Times
An American warplane shot down a “pro-Syria regime” drone on Thursday after the drone attacked United States-backed fighters in southern Syria, the American military said.
The confrontation was the latest clash in a potential proxy war in Syria that pits Iranian-backed militias that support President Bashar al-Assad against Syrian fighters who have been trained by American, British and other coalition military advisers.
Their ultimate goal, many analysts say, is to link up with Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and establish a supply corridor that runs from Syria to Iraq and, eventually, to Iran.
The episode occurred when the drone, which United States officials said appeared to be Iranian-made, dropped a munition near the Syrian fighters, who were accompanied at the time by advisers from the American-led coalition.
The ordnance missed, and an F-15E fighter shot down the drone, which was similar in size to an American Predator and was still armed with other weapons.
The area in southeastern Syria is becoming increasingly crowded as Iranian-backed militias, including the Lebanese group Hezbollah, have moved to extend their reach. Their initial goal appears to be to seize the area around the city of Deir al-Zour, which has been held by the Islamic State.
Their push eastward has brought them into proximity with American-backed Syrian fighters, who are being trained to battle the Islamic State and are operating out of a garrison at al-Tanf, a Syrian town close to the intersection of the Syrian, Iraqi and Jordanian borders.
Tensions in southeastern Syria have been running high, but the drone episode was the first time that pro-government forces there had fired on the American-backed fighters and their coalition advisers.
“That was the first time that we saw them actually firing or shooting at coalition forces,” Col. Ryan Dillon, the spokesman for the American-led task force that is fighting the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL.
The United States Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, said in a statement that it wanted to keep the focus on fighting the Islamic State and was not looking for a confrontation with the Assad government — or with the Russian and Iranian-backed forces that are supporting it.
“The coalition’s mission is to defeat ISIS in Iraq and Syria,” the Central Command said. “The coalition does not seek to fight Syrian regime, Russian or pro-regime forces partnered with them. The demonstrated hostile intent and actions of pro-regime forces near coalition and partner forces in southern Syria, however, continue to concern us, and the coalition will take appropriate measures to protect our forces.”
But some analysts say the operations by the American-backed Syrian fighters also serve the secondary purpose of denying important terrain to Iran’s proxy forces.
“Iran’s strategic goal is to capture a major border crossing and establish a land route from Syria to Iraq and, ultimately, to Iran as the Islamic State crumbles,” said Amir Toumaj, a research analyst with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington-based policy center.
“Even though the United States is careful to say that it is only fighting ISIS, its strategy also appears to be intended to deny the Iranians that land corridor,” he said.
There is no question that the situation in southeastern Syria has heated up in recent weeks. To protect the garrison at al-Tanf, the United States has warned Iranian-backed militias and Syrian forces to stay out of the “deconfliction” zone it has declared around the base.
On May 18, American planes bombed a tank, a bulldozer and an excavator that the Iranian-supported militias were using to build an outpost within the restricted zone. That action was taken after the United States military failed to get the militias to reverse course by buzzing their convoys with aircraft firing a warning.
The garrison at al-Tanf has since been reinforced, and the Americans have dropped leaflets
urging the pro-Assad forces to stay out of the zone, but that message has been ignored. On June 6, the American-led coalition again bombed Iranian-backed fighters that ventured inside of the restricted area. On Thursday morning, the coalition stuck again, bombing two armed pickup trucks inside the zone.
The episode involving the drone, however, occurred outside the zone in an area northeast of al-Tanf. An American official said that the zone was intended to keep pro-Assad forces at a safe distance from the al-Tanf garrison but that the American-backed Syrian fighters and their coalition advisers patrolled and operated beyond the buffer area.
The Americans have not been only ones issuing warnings. On Wednesday, the media arm of Hezbollah issued a statement warning that it would strike at the Americans if they crossed any “red lines,” which it did not define. It said that only “self-restraint” was keeping it from attacking American forces.