The United States launched an air strike on Tuesday against regime forces and their allied Iranian militias after they advanced on an area controlled by the Free Syrian Army in the Syrian Desert.
“Despite previous warnings, pro-regime forces entered the agreed-upon de-confliction zone with a tank, artillery, anti-aircraft weapons, armed technical vehicles and more than 60 soldiers posing a threat to Coalition and partner forces based at the Al Tanf Garrison,” said US Central Command in a statement.
“The Coalition issued several warnings via the de-confliction line prior to destroying two artillery pieces, an anti-aircraft weapon, and damaging a tank,” the statement added.
A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the strike was carried out by manned US aircraft.
Fighters of the Free Syrian Army on Monday shot down a fighter jet belonging to regime forces in the Syrian Desert as regime forces and the Iranian-backed sectarian militias attempted to advance on the FSA held-areas in the area.
The FSA Ossoud Alsharqiya Battalion announced that they shot down a regime fighter jet near Tal Dakwa hill about 50 kilometers to the east of Damascus.
“We shot down the warplane in an area of operations linked to countering the advance the regime forces and the Iranian-backed militias,” Saad al-Haj, spokesman for Ossoud Alsharqiya Battalion told Reuters. (Syrian Coalition’s Media Department + Agencies)
