The New York Times
WASHINGTON — An American F-15E fighter jet shot down an Iranian-made armed drone that was flying toward American-backed Syrian fighters and their advisers on Tuesday, Pentagon officials said.
The episode, over southeast Syria, was a fresh indication that the air war between forces supporting President Bashar al-Assad of Syria and the American military is likely to continue, and perhaps escalate, even though the United States has sought to keep its focus on defeating the Islamic State militants operating in Syria and Iraq.
The F-15E intercepted the drone and tried to get it to change course, but it continued to fly toward the fighters, who were at a combat outpost with their advisers northeast of the town al-Tanf. The drone was shot down shortly after midnight local time.
American officials said the downed aircraft was a Shahed 129, the same type of drone that an American warplane blasted on June 8 after the drone dropped a bomb near American-supported Syrian fighters and their coalition advisers at the same location. American officials said they did not know whether Shiite militia fighters, Syrian officers or Iranian advisers were operating the drones.
Tuesday’s encounter was the latest in a series that has heightened tensions in Syria. Government forces and the Iranian-backed militias that support them are converging on ungoverned parts of the country where American-backed fighters are also maneuvering as they seek to roll back the Islamic State’s self-declared caliphate.
Two days earlier, an American F/A-18 shot down a Syrian SU-22 warplane that had dropped bombs near American-backed fighters south of Tabqa. In response, Russia, which staunchly supports the Syrian government, warned that it would target any American or coalition planes that flew west of the Euphrates River.
Russian officials kept up their war of words on Tuesday. Sergei A. Ryabkov, the deputy foreign minister, complained that the downing of the drone merely “helps those terrorists whom the United States fights.”
Despite the heated remarks, signs emerged that the Russian and American militaries were working to manage the crisis. Although Russia announced Monday that it would suspend the use of a hotline set up for the two sides to avoid unintended confrontations in the skies over Syria, Lt. Col. Damien Pickart, the spokesman for the American-led air war command at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, said the hotline had not been interrupted.
“The de-confliction channel remains active and in use,” Colonel Pickart said.
The Pentagon said there were no indications Tuesday of hostile action on the part of the Russians toward American forces, and the United States was also being cautious.
Lt. Gen. Jeffrey L. Harrigian, who commands the coalition-led air campaign over Syria, said Monday that the United States had repositioned its aircraft to minimize the risk from Syrian and Russian air defenses but would continue its strikes against the Islamic State in Syria.
There was a close encounter Monday, however, between American and Russian aircraft in another arena of growing strategic interest to the two sides: the Baltic Sea. An American RC-135 reconnaissance plane was intercepted by a Russian SU-27 fighter, and at times, the aircraft were only several feet apart, officials at the United States European Command said.
Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said the encounter was “unsafe” because the Russian pilot had “poor control” of his aircraft and it was racing at a high speed.
Iranian drones have been flying fairly regularly over southern Syria, and Syrian aircraft have begun to venture there as well. That has been a worry for the United States, which along with allies established a garrison at al-Tanf to advise and train Syrian fighters to fight the Islamic State.
This month, an American warplane nearly shot down a Syrian SU-22 that appeared to be maneuvering to drop bombs on American-backed Syrian fighters, but the Syrian aircraft dumped its munitions in the desert and zoomed away.
After the Russian threats to target aircraft west of the Euphrates, Australia said Tuesday that it had suspended its air operations over Syria.
Australian reconnaissance aircraft and refueling tankers have been moved out of Syrian airspace, paralleling what the United States and other coalition members have done. Australia’s F/A-18s, however, generally fly over Iraq and not Syria, so the country’s move will not greatly affect their operations.