Tension mounts after Syrian plane downed

RUSSIA warned yesterday that it would track US-led coalition aircraft in central Syria as targets and halted an incident-prevention hotline with Washington after US forces downed a Syrian jet.

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 Islamic State group from its Syrian bastion Raqa.

Analysts say neither Washington nor President Bashar al-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 Raqa, 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 said.

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 IS, in an area close to Raqa.

The American F/A-18E Super Hornet shot down the Syrian SU-22 at about 7pm as it dropped bombs near SDF fighters south of the town of Tabqa, the coalition said.

It said that several hours earlier, regime forces had attacked the SDF in another town near Tabqa, 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 Islamic State 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.

“What is this, if not an act of aggression?” he asked.

Flying objects – planes and drones – will be aerial targets