The US-led coalition has shot down an armed "pro-Syrian regime" drone that it says was bearing down on its forces near a garrison close to the border with Iraq in Syria's southeast.
The threat against USA and coalition aircraft from Russian officials came amid another troubling development in region - the firing of several ballistic missiles by Iran at Islamic State positions in eastern Syria in what it said was a message to archrival Saudi Arabia and the United States. Those forces, which are aligned with the U.S.in the campaign against ISIS, warned Syrian government troops to stop their attacks or face retaliation.
Some of those warnings were not heeded, and have resulted in US airstrikes against pro-regime militias, including the downing of the Iranian Shaheed-129 drone and the Syrian Su-22 on Sunday.
It was also the first time the U.S. Air Force had shot down a manned aircraft since May 1999.
On Sunday, the US-led coalition confirmed to ARA News that they shot down a Syrian regime jet that attacked positions of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the vicinity of Tabqa town in Raqqa province.
Analysts say neither Washington nor President Bashar al-Assad's regime appear to be seeking further confrontation, but warn the risks are high in Syria's increasingly crowded battlefields.
US aircraft were being repositioned Monday after concerns about the contested battle space, said Col. Ryan Dillon, a spokesman for the Baghdad-based Operation Inherent Resolve. Another curious feature about this situation is that the USA mainstream media sees nothing illegal or unusual about the US military operating inside another country uninvited and shooting down government aircraft.
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Later on, Gaza Strip ruling party Hamas said that ISIS' proclamation is incorrect and an attempt to distort the political scene. Earlier, at his weekly Cabinet meeting, Netanyahu lashed out at Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas for not condemning the attack.
The United States' military command has indicated that its anti-ISIS operations would continue in the region including in the West of Euphrates but would adjust flight missions as necessary.
It added that Russian warplanes were also operating in Syria's airspace at the moment of the attack, but the US -led coalition didn't use the existing communication channels to warn the Russian military.
Russia, which is flying its own air war in Syria to prop up President Bashar al-Assad, condemned the incident and said it had shut off a special "deconfliction" hotline with the USA military, though top officer General Joe Dunford later said the United States was seeking to re-establish the channel.
The staunch U.S. ally in September said it would widen the scope of targets in the air war against IS by allowing its pilots to strike jihadist support and logistics resources in Iraq and Syria.
Intercepts between US and Russian aircraft are common, and are generally not as dangerously close.
Dunford said the U.S. -Russia military hotline established under the 2015 memorandum has been useful.
"When being accompanied, the RC-135 plane made an attempt at approaching the Russian fighter jet making a provocative turn towards it", the ministry said via TASS.
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