U.S. downs Iran-made armed drone in Syria

An American WASHINGTON— F-15E fighter jet shot down an Iranian-made armed drone Tuesday over southeast Syria that was flying toward U.S.backed Syrian fighters and their advisers, Pentagon officials said.

The episode was a fresh indication that the air war between forces loyal to Syria President Bashar Assad and the U.S. military is likely to continue, and perhaps escalate, even as 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 and was shot down. U.S. officials said the aircraft was a Shahed 129, the same type of Iranian drone that a U.S. warplane blasted on June 8 after it dropped a bomb near U.S.-supported Syrian fighters and their coalition advisers.

Tuesday’s episode occurred shortly after midnight local time as the drone approached a so-called deconfliction zone the Americans have declared around the town of al-Tanf, the same place where the first drone had ventured. A garrison of Syrian fighters and their U.S. and allied advisers are based near the town, which is near the intersection of the Syrian, Iraqi and Jordanian borders.

It was the latest in a series of encounters that has heightened tensions in the already complicated fighting in Syria, where many sides are converging on ungoverned parts of the country as Syrian forces and Iranian-backed militias that support them push east toward U.S.-backed Syrian fighters trying to take the Islamic State’s self-declared capital of Raqqa.

Two days earlier, an American F/A-18 shot down a Syrian SU-22 warplane that had dropped bombs near U.S.-backed fighters combating the Islamic State. In response to the downing of the Syrian plane, Russia, which staunchly supports the Syrian government, warned it would target any U.S. and coalition planes that flew west of the Euphrates River.

Even as the tensions have risen, signs emerged that the Russian and American militaries were working to manage the crisis.

Lt. Gen. Jeffrey L. Harrigian, who commands the coalition-led air campaign over Syria, said Monday that the U.S. would reposition its aircraft to minimize the risk from Syrian and Russian air defenses but would continue its strikes against the Islamic State in Syria. He also confirmed that there had been recent instances in which ground-based air defenses were directed at coalition planes.

Iranian drones have been flying fairly regularly over southern Syria, and Syrian aircraft have begun to venture there as well.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard on Sunday said it launched missile strikes into Syria in retaliation for attacks in Tehran earlier this month that were claimed by the Islamic State group.

On Monday the Guard issued a stark warning to IS militants, saying that any future attack against Iran will result in more powerful launches.

MORTEZA FAKHRINEJAD / IRIB NEWS AGENCY A missile is fired Sunday night from Kermanshah in western Iran targeting the Islamic State in Syria. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, which runs the country’s missile program, said it launched six Zolfaghar ballistic missiles.