US warplane shoots down Syrian jet
Thomas Gibbons-Neff and Kareem Fahim
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Washington: A US strike aircraft shot down a Syrian government fighter jet on Sunday shortly after the Syrians bombed US-backed fighters in northern Syria, the Pentagon said in a statement.
The Pentagon said the downing of the aircraft came hours after Syrian loyalist forces attacked US-backed fighters, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), near Tabqa, south-west of Raqqa.
It was the first time a US jet has shot down a manned hostile aircraft in more than a decade, and signalled the United States' sharply intensifying role in Syria's war.
The incident is the fourth time within a month that the US military has attacked pro-Syrian government forces.
A statement distributed by the Syrian military said that the aircraft's lone pilot was killed in the attack and that the jet was carrying out a mission against the Islamic State.
"The attack stresses coordination between the US and [IS], and it reveals the evil intentions of the US in administrating terrorism and investing it [sic] to pass the US-Zionist project in the region," the Syrian statement said.
Before it downed the Syrian plane, the US military used a deconfliction channel to communicate with Russia, Syria's main ally, to prevent the situation from escalating, the Pentagon said.
US-led jets stopped the fighting by flying close to the ground and at a low speed in what is called a "show of force", the Pentagon said.
About two hours later, despite the calls to stand down and the US presence overhead, a Syrian Su-22 jet attacked the Syrian Democratic Forces, dropping an unknown number of munitions on the US-backed force. Colonel John Thomas, a spokesman for the US Central Command, said that the Syrian aircraft arrived with little warning and that US aircraft nearby tried to hail the Syrian jet after it had dropped its bombs. Thomas also said US forces were in the area but were not directly threatened.
After the hailing attempts, a US F/A-18 shot down the Syrian aircraft "in accordance with rules of engagement and in collective self-defence of coalition-partnered forces", the Pentagon said.
Contributing sources:
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