Australia suspends IS strikes after US downs jet
Russia warns coalition over Syria flights
BEIRUT: Australia yesterday suspended its air strikes against Islamic State group targets in Syria as a precaution, after a US F/A-18 fighter jet shot down a Syrian warplane earlier this week and Russia warned the US-led coalition from flying over Syrian army positions west of the Euphrates River.
The announcement from Canberra came as a brief, two-day truce collapsed in the southern Syrian city of Daraa and nearby areas where government forces have gained ground.
Australia is part of a US-led coalition that has been waging war against IS militants in Syria and Iraq.
With the skies over Syria growing increasingly crowded, a statement from the Australian defence department released in the capital, Canberra, said “Australian Defence Force protection is regularly reviewed in response to a range of potential threats”.
Australia has six fighter jets based in the United Arab Emirates that strike targets in Syria and Iraq.
The US military shot down the Syrian warplane on Sunday, saying it had targeted American-allied, Kurdish-led Syrian Defence Forces (SDF) battling the IS extremists in their de facto capital, Raqqa. That led Russia, a close ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, to warn that it would target US-led coalition planes flying west of the Euphrates River and suspend a hotline intended to avoid collisions.
Russia’s defence minister said the pilot ejected “above IS-controlled territories” and that his fate was unknown.
“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,” said Russia’s defence ministry.
It said Washington had failed to use the hotline — a vital incident-prevention tool — before downing the plane near Raqqa.
The coalition said Syrian troops attacked SDF fighters near Tabqa, south of Raqqa, wounding several and chasing them out of
the town. It said the warplane was targeted in line with the “rules of engagement”.
Damascus and its ally Moscow condemned the “aggression”.
The Syrian army said the plane was hit while on a mission against IS jihadists and warned of “the grave consequences of this flagrant aggression”.
Russia’s deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said it was a “continuation of America’s line to disregard the norms of international law”.
“What is this if not an act of aggression?” The US moved quickly to contain an escalation, with a top general saying it would work to relaunch the “deconfliction” hotline established in 2015.
“We will work diplomatically and militarily in the coming hours to re-establish deconfliction,” said US General Joe Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, referring to the hotline.
Pentagon spokesman, Maj Adrian Rankine Galloway, said the US had taken
“prudent measures to re-position aircraft over Syria” to ensure the safety of pilots.
Analysts say neither Washington nor Mr Assad’s regime appear to be seeking further confrontation, although the risks remain high in Syria’s increasingly crowded battlefields and airspace.
Sam Heller, a Syria expert at The Century Foundation think-tank, said the regime was provoking confrontations, but neither side appeared to want a major escalation.
“I think that it was just that the regime
engaged in a provocation and then a lowerrung US commander responded in selfdefence,” he said of Sunday’s incident. “The regime got too close and it got burned.”
In another first, Iran — another close Assad ally — fired ballistic missiles at IS targets in eastern Syria, in the province of Deir el-Zour, later on Sunday. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard described the strike as revenge for IS attacks on Tehran earlier this month that killed at least 18 people and wounded more than 50.
A spokesman for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, Gen Ramazan Sharif, said all six ballistic missiles it launched on Syria hit their targets, according to “local sources and drone films”.
Gen Sharif said the missile launch reflected Iran’s “military power”, though Iran has no intention of starting another war.
The remarks came amid questions whether the strike had been effective. It was not known what exactly was hit and Iran has provided no details. Israeli security officials said on Monday they were studying the missile strike to see what they could learn about its accuracy and capabilities.
In the Syrian capital, Damascus, rebels fired artillery shells from the suburbs into the city, wounding at least three people, according to the state news agency Sana.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the eastern neighbourhood of Jobar was struck yesterday by 12 air strikes, adding that government forces are trying to push into the area.
Fighting and bombardment also resumed early yesterday in the contested city of Daraa and nearby areas where a 48-hour truce went into effect on Saturday. The truce was meant to be extended but now appears to have collapsed.
A Syrian military official in Damascus said the truce was not extended. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
“The situation is back as it was in Daraa city and fighting is ongoing,” said Daraa-based opposition activist Ahmad alMasalmeh. “The regime made the truce and then violated it.”
The Observatory also reported that government troops had captured a hill west of the city and a former army base that was held by rebels. It said government helicopters dropped 55 barrel bombs on Daraa while warplanes carried out about 20 air strikes.
Daraa is where Syria’s crisis first broke out in March 2011 as an uprising against Mr Assad’s government. The crisis quickly became a civil war, which has since left at least 400,000 people dead.
The push by regime forces in the Daraa area appears headed for the Jordanian border, two weeks after Mr Assad’s troops reached the border with Iraq for the first time in years.