US shoots down Iranian-made drone over base in Syria

The U.S. military said on Tuesday that it shot down an Iranian-built drone as it was conducting surveillance over an oil site that houses American troops in northeastern Syria.

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said the reconnaissance drone was shot down at around 2:30 p.m. local time.

The drone was “attempting to conduct reconnaissance of Mission Support Site Conoco, a patrol base in northeast Syria,” CENTCOM said in a statement.

On February 14th, at approximately 2:30 PM local time, US forces in Syria engaged and shot down an Iranian-manufactured UAV attempting to conduct reconnaissance of Mission Support Site Conoco, a patrol base in northeast Syria. pic.twitter.com/3GSf8odK3w
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) February 15, 2023

This incident comes on the heels of the massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake that decimated parts of Syria and Turkey last week. Following the earthquake, there was a noticeable drop in violence in Syria.

The Syrian civil war, which began in 2011, nearly toppled Bashar Assad from power. During the fight between rebels and government forces, ISIS used the power vacuum to seize a large swath of area inside Syria and Iraq and create a self-styled caliphate.

The United States has maintained about 900 troops in Syria to support the fight against ISIS. It has partnered with the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which have been instrumental in taking back territory from ISIS.

The war-torn area of northeast Syria is mostly controlled by the SDF; the Turkish military and Turkish-affiliated militias also control areas in northern Syria. Turkey, a long-time U.S. ally considers the SDF to be part of the Kurdish terrorist group, PKK. This has been denied by the SDF and the U.S. and has been a sticking point between Washington and Ankara.

The Iranian-made drone’s overflight shouldn’t be surprising, as the Iranian Quds Forces have created militias in Iraq and Syria ostensibly to fight ISIS. The Iranian proxy militias, which are more loyal to Tehran than Damascus, have frequently attacked American and SDF bases with rockets, and more recently drones.

Although no one claimed responsibility for the drone flight, some of the Iranian-proxy militias are based near the U.S. patrol base. In January, Iranian proxy militias fired rockets at the Conoco base, without causing casualties or doing any damage; that attack came a day after the two-year anniversary of Quds Forces leader Qasam Soleimani.

Iran routinely accused the U.S. of stealing oil from the area. The Kurds, are selling the oil to support their own semi-autonymous region.

Feature Image: The Iranian-made drone shot down over the U.S. base. (CENTCOM Twitter)