WASHINGTON
— An American fighter jet shot down a Syrian warplane on Sunday after
it dropped bombs near local ground forces supported by the United
States, the first time the American military has downed a Syrian
aircraft since the start of the civil war in 2011, officials said.
The confrontation represents a further escalation between forces supporting President Bashar al-Assad of Syria and the United States, which has been directing the military campaign in Syria and Iraq against the Islamic State.
The American F/A-18 shot down the Syrian government warplane south of the town of Tabqah, on the same day that Iran’s
Revolutionary Guards Corps launched several midrange missiles from
inside Iran at targets in Syria, hoping to punish Islamic State forces
responsible for last week’s terrorist attacks in Tehran.
The
Guards Corp said it “targeted the headquarters and meeting place and
suicide car assembly line” of “ISIS terrorists” in the province of Deir
al-Zour, where Islamic State forces surround an estimated 200,000 people
in a government-held section of the provincial capital of the same
name.
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American
officials said there appeared to be no direct connection between the
two events, but they underscored the complexity of a region in which
Syria, Russia, Turkey, Iran, Israel and the United States with its
allies have carried out air or missiles strikes, albeit in pursuit of
different and often competing objectives.
For
the United States, the main focus has been battling the Islamic State,
also known as ISIS or ISIL. This month, Syrian Kurdish and Arab
fighters, supported by American advisers and air power, began the battle
for Raqqa, the militants’ self-declared capital.
Even
before that battle is over, however, tensions have risen over control
of eastern Syria as Iranian-backed militias, including the Lebanese
group Hezbollah, have moved to extend their reach toward areas where the
American-based fighters are also operating.
Not
only are forces loyal to Mr. Assad interested in controlling the
oil-rich Deir al-Zour Province and relieving the pressure on a Syrian
military garrison that has been surrounded there, but the Iranian-backed
Shiite fighters are also believed to be trying to link up with
Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and establish a supply corridor that
runs from Syria to Iraq and, eventually, to Iran.
The
confrontation in Syria on Sunday began around 4:30 p.m. local time,
when American-backed ground Syrian fighters, who are officially called
the Syrian Democratic Forces, came under attack by what the Pentagon
described only as “pro-Syrian regime forces” and were forced from their
positions in the town of Ja’Din, south of Tabqah. Several of the
American-supported fighters were wounded.
The United States had airlifted hundred of Syrian fighters
and their American military advisers near Tabqah in March in a
generally successful push to cut off the western approaches to Raqqa.
To
scare away the adversary forces, American warplanes buzzed the
pro-Assad troops in what the Pentagon called a “show of force.” That
appeared to put an end to the fighting, and the Americans sought to
defuse the situation by calling their Russian counterparts from Al Udeid
Air Base in Qatar.
But
the Syrians were not finished. At 6:43 p.m., a Syrian SU-22 warplane
dropped several bombs near the American-backed fighters. Attempts to
warn the Syrian plane away from the area using an emergency radio
frequency failed, said Col. John J. Thomas, the spokesman for the United
States Central Command, which oversees American military operations in
the Middle East.
An
F/A-18 “Super Hornet,” which was patrolling the area after launching
from the George H. W. Bush aircraft carrier, quickly shot down the
Syrian plane. American advisers were not in the immediate vicinity of
the bombing by the Syrian SU-22.
A
statement by the American-led task force that is fighting the Islamic
State stressed that it was taken under rules of engagement permitting
the “collective self-defense” of its Syrian partners.
This month, an American F-15E shot down an Iranian-made drone after it attacked American fighters in southeastern Syria.
The
United States has set up a garrison at al-Tanf in southeastern Syria,
where Syrian fighters and American, British and Norwegian advisers have
been based.
The
United States has warned pro-Assad forces to stay out of a
“deconfliction” zone it has declared around the garrison. The town of
Ja’Din is little more than a mile north of this deconfliction area, but
the United States has made it clear that the Syrian fighters it supports
and the American and other allied advisers that accompany them are not
limited to that buffer area.
After
Sunday’s episode, the American-led task force said it was not seeking a
confrontation with Mr. Assad or the Russian and Iranian forces or
Shiite militias that are fighting to support the Syrian leader — but
added that it would defend the Syrian fighters it has assembled to
pursue the Islamic State.
“The
coalition’s mission is to defeat ISIS in Iraq and Syria,” the official
statement said. “The coalition does not seek to fight Syrian regime,
Russian, or pro-regime forces partnered with them, but will not hesitate
to defend coalition or partner forces from any threat.”
Iran
offered official statements about its military actions, too, and a
video of the launch of one of the missiles was posted by the
semiofficial Fars News Agency.
The
Guards Corps said the strike, sending missiles flying over neighboring
Iraq into Syria, had been carried out in retaliation for the terrorist
attacks this month on the Iranian Parliament building and the shrine of
the founder of the Islamic Republic. Eighteen people died in those
attacks and dozens were wounded. The Islamic State claimed
responsibility.
The
Iranians made no effort to offer warnings about or “deconflict” their
missile strike with the United States, American officials said. The
Iranian missile attack was seen by analysts as a sign of an escalating
role for Iran in the Syrian conflict and an indication of Tehran’s
growing power in the region.
The
missile strike over a considerable distance may have also been designed
to send a message to Iran’s enemies in the region, including Israel and
Saudi Arabia, as well as the United States, which maintains multiple
military bases in the Middle East.
Michael R. Gordon reported from Washington, and Thomas Erdbrink from Tehran.
