USA shoots down another pro-regime drone in Syria

The incident comes amid increased tensions between Russian Federation and the United States following the shoot-down Sunday of a Syrian fighter jet by a U.S. Navy Super Hornet after the Syrians bombed U.S. -backed fighters in northern Syria.

"As a precautionary measure, Australian Defence Force (ADF) strike operations into Syria have temporarily ceased", a defense spokeswoman said in a statement.

That drone was shot down after it dropped one of several weapons it was carrying near a position where coalition personnel are training and advising partner ground forces in the fight against ISIS.

The Syrian regime's Su-22 was targeted after it ignored warnings to stop bombing US-backed fighters in Raqqa province on Sunday.

"The chance for a catastrophic error is higher now than ever before in the six-year-old civil war", USA -based intelligence advisory firm The Soufan Group noted Tuesday.

The U.S. also shot down an Iranian made drone over Syria on June 8. "We want to de-escalate, not escalate", Davis said.

Moscow issued the threat to coalition planes and drones in retaliation for a US Navy fighter downing a Syrian plane.

While the US -led coalition is not technically at war with the Syrian regime - despite President Donald Trump's Tomahawk missile strike against a military airbase in April in response to the regime's use of chemical weapons - clashes between coalition forces and militias loyal to Assad have become frequent enough that the Syrian Civil War is on the verge of entering a new phase that could pit world powers against each other in a direct confrontation.

The official was not authorized to be quoted by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The spokesman said that USA air operations were continuing to operate, including west of the Euphrates, with some changes to altitude and flight plans in order to "mitigate risk". The truce was meant to be extended but now appears to have collapsed.

The activist-run Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that government troops captured a hill west of the city and a former army base that was held by rebels.

It was not known what exactly was hit and Iran has provided no details.

"The situation is back as it was in Daraa city and fighting is ongoing", said Daraa-based opposition activist Ahmad al-Masalmeh.

Daraa is where Syria's crisis first broke out in March 2011 as an uprising against President Bashar Assad's government.

Unlike in Iraq, where the U.S.is a partner with Iraqi troops to liberate Mosul and other IS bastions, Washington has refused to work with Assad, who is mired in Syria's civil war that is in its seventh year and has killed more than 400,000 people.

"That would be another mistake on the scope of the Iraq War", he said.

For the first time in two years, Syrian troops reached the border with Iraq, establishing a link with Iraqi forces that were advancing on their side, and outflanking USA troops and allied rebels in Tanf, near the border with Jordan.

Washington also described those strikes as self-defense.

But the missiles sent a message to more than just the extremists in Iraq and Syria, Sharif told state television in a telephone interview.