On Sunday, a U.S. F-18 Super Hornet shot down a Syrian government SU-22 after it dropped bombs near troops from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which are now moving towards Raqqah, Daesh's Syrian stronghold.
"The Coalition has made it clear to all parties publicly and through the de-confliction line with Russian forces that the demonstrated hostile intent and actions of pro-regime forces toward Coalition and partner forces in Syria conducting legitimate counter-ISIS operations will not be tolerated", the statement read.
The U.S. military has established a roughly 50-kilometer "deconfliction" ring around Tanf, warning the pro-Assad Iranian-backed forces through a Russian deconfliction channel that movement within the zone could be considered hostile.
"I think Iran is trying to preemptively shape what a U.S. - Iran conflict would look like, keep us focused on eastern Syria and away from key Iranian interests in the west", said Jennifer Cafarella, an expert on the Syrian conflict at the Institute for the Study of War. Russian Federation backs Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whom Iran also supports, while the USA -led coalition is aligned with groups that oppose the Assad regime and ISIS.
Two days earlier, an American FA-18 shot down a Syrian SU-22 warplane that had dropped bombs near American-backed fighters combating the Islamic State.
The incident - the first of its kind since the USA started fighting ISIS in Syria in 2014 - prompted Russian Federation to issue a threat to coalition aircraft flying west of the River Euphrates that they "will be considered air targets". Moscow has accused the United States of not using the hotline to prevent the Raqqa incident.
The Russian Defence Ministry announced that, as of Monday, it had ceased cooperation with the United States through its de-confliction channel established with the aim of preventing incidents in the busy skies over Syria. Chris Murphy of CT warned Tuesday that the United States could be edging toward a military conflict with Iran and Russian Federation in Syria. "That would be another mistake on the scope of the Iraq War".
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"As a precautionary measure, Australian Defence Force (ADF) strike operations into Syria have temporarily ceased", a defence spokeswoman said in a statement.
If Syrian forces are targeting American troops in the region, then it is likely that war looms.
On the other hand, Russia, along with Iran, has been assisting the Syrian government in its fight against terrorist groups wreaking havoc in the Arab country since 2011.
A defense official says the drone was approaching a military camp near the Syria-Jordan border.
It is the fifth time in the past month the USA has struck at forces allied with the Syrian government in the area.
The Pentagon said the action was "in accordance with rules of engagement and in collective self-defense of coalition partnered forces", but that was not the view in Moscow.
The US has about 1,000 military personnel in northern Syria, where it has been supplying and supporting partnered forces in their fight in the ISIS-stronghold of Raqqa.
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