The U.S. -led coalition said the location was close to where another "pro-regime" drone, which intelligence sources had also identified as Iranian, was shot down on June 8 after dropping bombs near coalition forces.
CBS News correspondent David Martin reports the drone came too close to one of the outposts of USA -backed fighters outside of their main base in Tanf.
Syrian government forces and their allies on Wednesday seized an area southeast of Damascus towards the Jordanian and Iraqi borders, an area where USA troops are based, state television reported. The drone shot down on June 20 was "just outside" the deconfliction zone, according to USA officials who spoke to CNN.
The downing of the drone comes just two days USA warplane shot down a Syrian army jet on Sunday in the southern Raqqa countryside with Washington saying the jet had dropped bombs near US backed forces and Damascus saying the plane was downed while flying a mission against Islamic State militants.
"There has been neither a [UN] Security Council decision, nor a request from the official authorities of the Syrian Arab Republic as a sovereign state" for such forces, he told Russia's Interfax news agency.
Meanwhile, in northern Syria, the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa is now under siege by coalition-backed Kurdish forces, who, like most of the militias supported by the US -led coalition as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, are considered an enemy of the regime.
A defense official says the drone was approaching a military camp near the Syria-Jordan border.
"They were threatening our forces on the ground", the official said.
China needs to exert 'much greater pressure' on N. Korea
Washington has considered further "secondary sanctions" against Chinese banks and other firms doing business with North Korea. The U.S. has more than 28,000 troops stationed in South Korea and around 50,000 American military personnel in Japan.
He says: "We are not the initiator of any conflict and war but we do not tolerate creation of insecurity in our country".
"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 the March 2011 uprising against the Assad family's four-decade rule began. The crisis quickly became a civil war, which has since left at least 400,000 people dead. It is still unclear what the missiles struck, and Iran has provided few details. The Pentagon also described those strikes as self-defense.
The push by Syrian government forces in the Daraa area appears headed for the Jordanian border, two weeks after Assad's troops reached the border with Iraq for the first time in years.
In Canberra, a Defense Department statement said on Tuesday that "Australian Defense Force protection is regularly reviewed in response to a range of potential threats".
The jihadists are under major pressure in Syria and neighbouring Iraq.
The U.S. military meanwhile confirmed Tuesday that top IS cleric Turki al-Binali was killed in a coalition airstrike on May 31, in Mayadeen, Syria.
"Iran is nervous about what the Americans are up to in Syria ..."
Comments