Syria’s military said on Wednesday it downed an American drone over suspicions it was spying, in what would be its first attack on an aircraft in the US-led coalition battling jihadists.
A military source said the drone was not immediately identified as being American but was shot down as a hostile aircraft.
“As soon as it entered Syrian air space, we considered it to be gathering security and military information on Syria’s territory,” the source in Damascus said.
“The aircraft entered areas where Daesh is not present,” he added, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State (ISIS) jihadist group.
Syrian state media reported late on Tuesday that air defences had targeted a US surveillance aircraft over Latakia province, a coastal stronghold of President Bashar Assad.
Without specifying a location or timing for the incident, state media published a series of close-up photos showing what they said was the mangled wreckage of a small aircraft.
The US military confirmed losing communication with a Predator drone over Syria on Tuesday and said it was looking into claims the aircraft was shot down.
At about 17:40 GMT, “US military controllers lost contact with a US MQ-1 Predator unarmed remotely piloted aircraft operating over northwest Syria”, a US defence official said in an e-mail.
“At this time, we have no information to corroborate press reports that the aircraft was shot down. We are looking into the incident and will provide more details when available.”
If confirmed, the incident would be the first time Syrian forces have attacked a US aircraft since the international coalition began its raids against ISIS in Syria in September.
Damascus is not participating in the coalition’s strikes, although its own aircraft also target ISIS, but has so far refrained from taking action against the foreign planes involved in the operations.
