The U.S. -led military coalition said in a statement that the shoot down occurred where another pro-regime drone dropped munitions on June 8 before it was also shot down.
The U.S-led coalition said in a statement that an F-15E Strike Eagle jet destroyed the Shaheed-129 drone around 12:30 am local time close to the Jordanian border.
The coalition forces "were manning an established combat outpost to the northeast" of the base when the drone flew in, a Pentagon statement said.
The incident follows the US downing of a piloted Syrian Army jet near Raqqa after it dropped bombs near USA -backed forces over the weekend, an incident that prompted a warning from Syria ally Russian Federation. Israeli security officials said Monday they were studying the missile strike to see what they could learn about its accuracy and capabilities.
That is where USA forces have been training and advising local Syrian Arabs for the fight against Islamic State militants.
The incident comes two days after an American F/A-18 warplane allegedly shot down a Syrian fighter Su-22 near the Syrian city of Taqba in the southern Raqqa area.
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US-Russia tensions are high in Syria after the Kremlin warned it would target any US-led coalition's aircraft flying west of the Euphrates River.
These skirmishes illustrate how congested and complex the battle space has become in Syria. US -backed forces recently pushed into Raqqa, the northern Syrian city that served as the group's de facto capital. And there, warring parties in Syria's ongoing civil war continue to jostle over territory. He should not let Putin, on behalf of his friends in Iran, shut the USA out of the end-game against ISIS and the post-ISIS jockeying for control. In comparison, only 6-7 out of 59 cruise missiles, which the USA has launched at Shayrat airbase, have hit the target.
Some analysts believe Iran is attempting to establish a land corridor in Syria, linking its capital, Tehran, all the way to Lebanon, where its militant proxy, Hezbollah, operates.
The U.S. military has repeatedly warned forces fighting on Bashar al-Assad's side to stay away from a "deconfliction zone" agreed upon with Russian Federation, near a garrison used by U.S. special forces and U.S. -backed militia around Tanf, which lies along the Syria-Jordan-Iraq triple border region. Israel has controlled the Golan Heights since the 1967 Six-Day War.
The US military said it will work on de-escalating the situation, with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr. saying on Monday that the United States will work diplomatically and militarily "to re-establish de-confliction", but the Russian side seems seriously irked.
Military officials who spoke to CNN described it as a Shahed 129, a model unveiled by Iran in 2012. It was a "matter of minutes" between intercept and shoot-down, he said.
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