A US warplane shot down a pro-regime UAV in Syria on Thursday 9th after it fired at coalition forces, officials said, marking a new escalation of tensions in the war-torn country’s south. Although the weapon the UAV deployed had hit only dirt, the action was nevertheless “clearly meant” as an attack, as the UAV had fired on coalition forces patrolling outside the zone.
No one was hurt in the incident, which occurred near the coalition’s At-Tanaf garrison close to the Jordanian border, spokesman Colonel Ryan Dillon told Pentagon reporters, but the UAV "was armed and still had weapons on it when it was fired upon by US forces from an aircraft,” he said. “Regardless of what kind of drone it was, it fired upon our coalition forces, and therefore showed hostile intent, and it was perceived as a threat,". The UAV was about the same size as a MQ-1 Predator, and it was not immediately clear who owned the aircraft or whether it may have been Iranian.
