Rodi Said/Reuters
Adam Rawnsley, Daily Beast: Drone War Heats Up in the Skies Over Syria
The U.S.-led coalition’s downing of Iran’s Predator-sized Shahed-129 steps up a drone war that is only likely to intensify as ISIS crumbles in Syria.
The U.S.-led coalition in Syria has shot down the pride of Iran’s drone fleet, heating up the little-noticed drone war Iran has been waging on behalf of the Assad regime over the past five years.
In a statement released on Thursday, the coalition said it shot down a pro-Assad regime drone “similar in size to a U.S. MQ-1 Predator” after the drone dropped a number of munitions near coalition forces training and fighting with anti-ISIS rebels at At Tanf.
The U.S. description of the Iranian-made drone as Predator-sized, taken together with Hezbollah’s broadcast of a video feed showing an Iranian drone shadowing a U.S. MQ-1 Predator near At Tanf the day before the downing as well as reporting from CNN, point to Iran’s Shahed-129, the most capable unmanned aerial vehicle in Tehran’s arsenal, as the downed drone.
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Previous Post: Iranian Drone Tracks A U.S. Drone Over Syria (Video) (June 9, 2017)
WNU Editor: Here is an easy prediction .... if an Iranian drone is successful in striking a U.S. special forces unit in Syria, the U.S. retaliation will be massive. With escalation in the air, I guess this explains why there is now a push for this .... U.S., Russia discuss de-escalation zone for southwest Syria: diplomats (Reuters).
