A drone that U.S. Central Command says was Iranian-made is destroyed by U.S. forces in northeastern Syria on Feb. 14, 2023. The drone was spying on a U.S. base, CENTCOM said. (CENTCOM)
American forces in Syria shot down an Iranian-made drone that was watching over a patrol base, U.S. Central Command said Wednesday.
The drone flew over Mission Support Site Conoco in the northeastern part of the country, and was shot down at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, CENTCOM said on Twitter.
The drone appeared to be a short-range surveillance aircraft hand-launched by forces nearby, said Jeremy Binnie, an analyst at the defense intelligence firm Janes.
CENTCOM said the drone was manufactured in Iran but did not say who was operating the aircraft.
The accusation comes as Iran and the U.S. trade claims that the other is destabilizing the Middle East, which analysts say is locked in a shadow war between Tehran’s partners and Washington’s.
A drone that U.S. Central Command says was Iranian-made flies over a U.S. base in northeastern Syria on Feb. 14. 2023. U.S. forces shot down the drone, CENTCOM said. (CENTCOM)
The U.S. Navy in recent months has seized thousands of rifles and rockets at sea that it says were en route from Iran to militant proxies.
The U.S. also has accused Iranian companies of involvement in the delivery of aerial drones to Russia, which Moscow has used in attacks against civilian infrastructure in Ukraine.
Politicians in Tehran, meanwhile, have blamed the spread of popular protests across Iran over the last year on the United States.
The shootdown comes about three weeks after an aerial drone attack on another base used by U.S. forces in Syria.
That attack, on Jan. 20 at al-Tanf garrison, involved three aircraft described as one-way attack drones, CENTCOM said at the time in a statement, adding that no U.S. troops were injured.
Roughly 900 U.S. service members are based in Syria to support operations against the Islamic State and train partner forces.
Mission Support Site Conoco also came under attack from two rockets on Jan. 4. The attack left no injuries or damage to the base, CENTCOM said at the time.
More than 300 anti-ISIS operations were conducted in Iraq and Syria in 2022, CENTCOM said in December. A raid on Friday killed an ISIS member planning attacks on detention centers in Syria, the command said Wednesday in a statement.
The U.S. has been fighting ISIS since the militant group conquered about a third of Syria and 40% of Iraq in 2014.
ISIS lost its last territorial enclave in 2019, but U.S. defense officials say militants in both countries are still a threat.
