BEIRUT: Russia on Monday warned it would track US-led coalition aircraft in central Syria as “targets” and halted an incident-prevention hotline with Washington after US forces downed a Syrian jet.
Moscow has only once before suspended the hotline, which was established in October 2015 to prevent conflict between the different forces operating in Syrian airspace.
The shootdown incident and Russia’s response further complicate Syria’s six-year war and come as the US-led coalition and allied fighters battle to oust the IS group from its Syrian bastion Raqa.
Analysts say neither Washington nor President Bashar al Assad’s government appear to be seeking further confrontation, but warn that the risks are high in Syria’s increasingly crowded battlefields.
Russia’s foreign ministry accused Washington of failing to use the hotline before downing the plane near Raqa, and called for a “careful investigation by the US command.”
“Any flying objects, including planes and drones of the international coalition, discovered west of the Euphrates river will be tracked as aerial targets by
Russia’s air defences on and above ground,” it warned. — Reuters
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