U.S. Says It Shot Down Syrian Aircraft Move marks the first time coalition forces have struck a regime plane in the nation’s civil war
https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-led-coalition-says-it-shot-down-syrian-aircraft-1497820157
An American warplane shot down a Syrian government jet on Sunday, the Pentagon said, marking the first time in Syria’s civil war that a U.S. pilot has struck a regime plane and signaling an increased willingness by the Trump administration to directly challenge President Bashar al-Assad and his allies.
On Sunday, the U.S. military said it had shot down the Syrian SU-22 after regime forces twice attacked members of American-backed Syrian fighters leading the assault on Raqqa, the self-declared capital of the Islamic State terror group.
With the strike, the U.S. military made it clear it is now willing to target Syrian regime jets to protect the coalition of Kurdish and Arab fighters working with U.S. special-operation forces to push Islamic State, also known as ISIS, from Raqqa.
The U.S. military said the confrontation began Sunday afternoon when Syrian forces attacked the Syrian Democratic Forces near Raqqa, forcing the U.S.-backed fighters to retreat as they evacuated their injured. Coalition aircraft flew low over the regime forces in a “show of force” that stopped them from advancing, the military said.
The U.S., which has no direct contact with the Syrian regime, then said it used an established deconfliction line with the Russians, who fly their own airstrikes in Syria in support of Mr. Assad, to try to bring the fight to a halt. About two hours after the initial Syrian attack, a regime SU-22 jet dropped bombs on U.S.-backed forces in the same area.
Citing “collective self-defense of coalition partnered forces,” the U.S. military said an American F/A-18E Super Hornet shot down the regime jet. Col. John Thomas, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said there were no U.S. forces in the “immediate vicinity” of the Syrian regime attack. CONTINUE AT SITE
Syrian state media called the U.S. attack a “flagrant aggression” and said the jet was carrying out a mission against Islamic State militants when it was downed. The pilot is missing, according to state media. The Syrian army said the U.S. “attack stresses coordination between the U.S. and ISIS,” according to Syrian state media.
Col. Thomas dismissed that characterization and said that the coalition saw the Syrian forces attack the U.S.-backed fighters.
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