WEB DESK
A US fighter jet has shot down a Syrian government plane in Syria’s Raqqa province. The US-led coalition on yesterday said it downed the plane after it dropped bombs on American-backed forces fighting ISIL in northern Syria.
The Syrian army said its jet was on a combat mission against the armed group’s fighters near the city of Raqqa, ISIL’s de-facto capital in Syria. The incident came as a monitoring group reported the first ground fighting between Syrian government troops and the US-backed alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters.
The escalation comes as Syria’s six-year-old war becomes ever more complex, with US forces and their allies converging on the northern IS bastion of Raqa in close proximity to Russian-backed regime troops.
Further complicating matters, Iran said it launched missile strikes Sunday against terror bases in Syria’s northeastern Deir Ezzor province in revenge for deadly attacks on its capital claimed by IS.
The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters – is battling to oust the jihadists from Raqa, and broke into the IS stronghold city last week.