MOSCOW — Warplanes from the U.S.-led coalition operating over Syrian government-controlled areas west of the Euphrates River will be tracked as potential targets, Russia's Defense Ministry said Monday, a day after the U.S. military shot down a Syrian air force jet.

Moscow condemned the downing of the Syrian jet after it dropped bombs near the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces that are fighting the Islamic State group in Syria's civil war.

The downing of the warplane — the first time in the conflict that the U.S. has shot down a Syrian jet — came as Iran fired several ballistic missiles at Islamic State positions in eastern Syria in retaliation for two attacks by the extremists in Tehran earlier this month that killed 17 people.

Areas of northern Syria west of the Euphrates were controlled by the Islamic State before Syrian government forces captured most of them in recent months. The Russians appear to want to avoid further U.S. targeting of Syrian warplanes or ground troops that have come under U.S. attack in eastern Syria recently.

Moscow also called on the U.S. military to provide a full accounting of why it decided to shoot down the Syrian Su-22.

Russia, a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, has been providing an air cover to the government's offensive since 2015.

But in April, Russia briefly suspended a hotline intended to prevent midair incidents with the U.S. over Syria after the American military fired 59 missiles at a Syrian air base after a chemical weapons attack that Washington blamed on the Assad government.

The U.S. military confirmed that one of its F-18 Super Hornets shot down a Syrian Su-22 that had dropped bombs near the U.S. partner forces. Those forces, which are aligned with the U.S. in the campaign against the Islamic State, warned Syrian government troops to stop their attacks or face retaliation.

In comments to Russian news agencies, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov compared the downing to "helping the terrorists that the U.S. is fighting against."

"What is this, if not an act of aggression?" he asked.

Viktor Ozerov, chairman of the defense and security committee at the upper chamber of Russian parliament, described the Defense Ministry's statement as a warning.

"I'm sure that because of this neither the U.S. nor anyone else will take any actions to threaten our aircraft," he told the state-owned RIA Novosti news agency. "That's why there's no threat of direct confrontation between Russia and American aircraft."

Ozerov insisted that Russia will be tracking the coalition's jets, not shooting them down, but he added that "a threat for those jets may appear only if they take action that pose a threat to Russian aircraft."</s>The Russian Defense Ministry announced it is halting cooperation with its US counterparts in the framework of the Memorandum on the Prevention of Incidents and Ensuring Air Safety in Syria following the coalition’s downing of a Syrian warplane.

The ministry has demanded a thorough investigation by the US military command into the incident with the Syrian government military jet, with the results to be shared with the Russian side.

“In the areas of combat missions of Russian air fleet in Syrian skies, any airborne objects, including aircraft and unmanned vehicles of the [US-led] international coalition, located to the west of the Euphrates River, will be tracked by Russian ground and air defense forces as air targets,” the Russian Ministry of Defense stated.

Downing the military jet within Syrian airspace “cynically” violates the sovereignty of the Syrian Arab Republic, Russian military said.

The actions of the US Air Force are in fact “military aggression” against Syria, the statement adds.

The ministry emphasized that Russian warplanes were on a mission in Syrian airspace during the US-led coalition’s attack on the Syrian Su-22, while the coalition failed to use the communication line to prevent an incident.

“The command of the coalition forces did not use the existing communication channel between the air commands of Al Udeid Airbase (in Qatar) and the Khmeimim Airbase to prevent incidents in Syrian airspace.”

The ministry considers the move “a conscious failure to comply with the obligations under the Memorandum on the Prevention of Incidents and Ensuring Air Safety in Syria,” and is thus halting cooperation with the US within the memorandum framework as of June 19, the statement concluded.

Earlier Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov condemned the attack, branding it an act of aggression which actually helped the terrorists the US is fighting against.

The US-led coalition downed the Syrian government warplane on Sunday. At the moment of the attack the jet was carrying out operations against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) some 40km from Raqqa, the Russian Defense Ministry said. The pilot ejected from the plane above IS-controlled territory and is still missing.</s>A U.S. Navy F-18 shot down a Syrian Su-22. That’s the first air-to-air downing by a U.S. aircraft since 1999. Russia didn’t like that. It says it will treat U.S. aircraft as targets. I am not sure what that exactly means, but it doesn’t sound good.

Also Iran fired missiles into Syria, apparently for the first time, and supposedly in retaliation for the recent terrorist attacks in Tehran.

Increasingly, the conflicts in the Middle East feel to me like they are melding into one big war, from Lebanon to Waziristan to Yemen. Two questions I don’t have good answers to, but about which I am curious:

— Are we heading toward one big war in the Middle East?

— Was it inevitable, or did the U.S. invasion of Iraq begin the slide?</s>U.S. pilots operating over Syria won’t hesitate to defend themselves from Russian threats, a Pentagon spokesperson said Monday in the latest escalation between the two superpowers since a U.S. jet shot down a Syrian aircraft on Sunday.

“We do not seek conflict with any party in Syria other than ISIS, but we will not hesitate to defend ourselves or our partners if threatened,” Capt. Jeff Davis told The Washington Examiner.

Department of Defense spokesperson Maj. Adrian J.T. Rankine-Galloway said coalition aircraft would continue conducting “operations throughout Syria, targeting ISIS forces and providing air support for Coalition partner forces on the ground.”

“As a result of recent encounters involving pro-Syrian Regime and Russian forces, we have taken prudent measures to re-position aircraft over Syria so as to continue targeting ISIS forces while ensuring the safety of our aircrew given known threats in the battlespace,” Rankine-Galloway said in a statement.

Earlier Monday, Russian officials threatened to treat U.S.-led coalition planes flying in Syria, west of the Euphrates River, would be considered targets.

The news came one day after the first time in history a U.S. jet shot down a Syrian plane – and the first time in nearly 20 years the U.S. has shot down any warplane in air-to-air combat.

The last time a U.S. jet had shot down another country’s aircraft came over Kosovo in 1999 when a U.S. Air Force F-15 Eagle shot down a Serbian MiG-29.

On Sunday, it was a U.S. F-18 Super Hornet that shot down a Syrian SU-22 after that jet dropped bombs near U.S. partner forces taking on ISIS.

Russia’s defense ministry also said Monday it was suspending coordination with the U.S. in Syria over so-called “de-confliction zones” after the downing of the Syrian jet.

The United States and Russia, which has been providing air cover for Syria’s President Bashar Assad since 2015 in his offensive against ISIS, have a standing agreement that should prevent in-the-air incidents involving U.S. and Russian jets engaged in operations over Syria.

The Russian defense ministry said it viewed the incident as Washington’s “deliberate failure to make good on its commitments” under the de-confliction deal.’

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, in comments to Russian news agencies, compared the downing to “helping the terrorists that the U.S. is fighting against.”

“What is this, if not an act of aggression,” he asked.

Meanwhile, the U.S.-backed opposition fighters said Assad’s forces have been attacking their positions in the northern province of Raqqa and warned that if such attacks continue, the fighters will take action.

Fox News’ Lucas Tomlinson and Jennifer Griffin and The Associated Press contributed to this report.</s>WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Earlier in the day, the Russian Defense Ministry said that it halted halted all interactions with the US within the framework on the memorandum of incident prevention in Syrian skies. Moscow said the US-led coalition didn't contact the Russian military over the incident. The move came following the US-led coalition's downing of a Syrian army's jet near Raqqa.

"The Coalition spoke to the Russians several times yesterday and is always available to de-conflict operations to ensure the safety of Coalition aircrews and operations," the spokesperson said.

The US-led coalition has taken steps to reposition its aircraft in Syria after recent encounters with pro-Syrian government and Russian forces, Operation Inherent Resolve spokesperson told Sputnik.

"As a result of recent encounters involving pro-Syrian Regime and Russian forces, we have taken prudent measures to re-position aircraft over Syria so as to continue targeting ISIS [Daesh] forces while ensuring the safety of our aircrew given known threats in the battlespace."

Later, the coalition confirmed the information saying that it shot down the Syrian government forces' Su-22 aircraft as it had allegedly been bombing in an area where US-backed rebel forces, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), were stationed, south of Tabqa in the Raqqa province. The US-led coalition called its attack on the Syrian army's jet "collective self-defense," adding that it contacted the Russian military to de-escalate the situation after the incident.

The Russian Defense Ministry called the attack "cynical" and "de facto an act of aggression" against a UN member state. The ministry also Russian missile defense will intercept any aircraft in the area of operations of the Russian Aerospace Forces in Syria.</s>MOSCOW: Warplanes from the US-led coalition operating over Syrian airspace west of the Euphrates River will be treated as potential targets, Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Monday, a day after the US military shot down a Syrian air force jet.

Russia, Syria’s main ally, also said it is suspending a cooperative pact with the US aimed at maintaining airspace safety in Syria, BBC reported. The latest spat came a day after an American F18E Super Hornet fighter jet downed on Sunday a Syrian SU-22 which was targeting areas held by a US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-Arab coalition militia fighting the Islamic State in the city of Raqqa.

“Any aircraft, including planes and drones belonging to the international coalition operating west of the Euphrates river, will be tracked by Russian anti-aircraft forces in the sky and on the ground and treated as targets,” the ministry said. –</s>The White House told Russia on Monday that it reserves 'the right to self defense' after the Kremlin warned it would track US-led coalition aircraft in Syria as potential 'targets' and halted an incident-prevention hotline with Washington after US forces downed a Syrian jet.

'I think that the escalation of hostilities among the many factions that are operating in this region doesn't help anybody,' White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said 'and the Syrian regime and the others in the regime need to understand that we will retain the right to self defense of coalition forces aligned against ISIS.'

Spicer told a reporter later that he was not saying the US is on the brink of war with Russia amid an escalation in tensions that came after the Syrian government attacked a US-backed group that is fighting ISIS.

The US says an SU-22 operated by the Syrian regime was dropping bombs on the Syrian Democratic Forces when it was shot out of the sky by a U.S. F/A-18E Super Hornet.

The United States moved quickly to contain the situation on Monday, with a top general saying Washington would work to relaunch the 'deconfliction' hotline with Russia that was established in 2015.

A Pentagon official told Russia that it would not back down, however, after Russia threatened to make US planes its targets.

'We do not seek conflict with any party in Syria other than ISIS, but we will not hesitate to defend ourselves or our partners if threatened,' Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis told Fox News.

The downing of the jet and Russia's response came as the US-led coalition and allied fighters battle to oust the Islamic State jihadist group from its Syrian bastion Raqqa.

Analysts say neither Washington nor President Bashar al-Assad's regime appear to be seeking further confrontation, although the risks remain high in Syria's increasingly crowded battlefields and airspace.

Russia's foreign ministry accused Washington of failing to use the hotline before downing the plane near Raqqa, and called for a 'careful investigation by the US command' into the incident.

'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 defenses on and above ground,' it warned.

At a press conference on Monday, Davis said the countries were still speaking to each other about their operations.

'I'm confident that we are still communicating between our operations center and the Russia federation operations center,' he said. 'And I'm also confident that our forces have the capability to take care of themselves.'

Department of Defense spokesperson Major Adrian JT Rankine-Galloway promised that coalition aircraft would not be cowed by Russia's threats.

He said they would continue conducting 'operations throughout Syria, targeting ISIS forces and providing air support for Coalition partner forces on the ground.'

'As a result of recent encounters involving pro-Syrian Regime and Russian forces, we have taken prudent measures to re-position aircraft over Syria so as to continue targeting ISIS forces while ensuring the safety of our aircrew given known threats in the battlespace,' he said.

The area west of the Euphrates - as well as much of the country - is covered by Russia's 'Growler' anti-aircraft defense system, which has a range of 250 miles and can hit targets up to an altitude of 90,000 feet.

The system has been deployed on the Latakia Airbase on the Syrian coast; Russia has been providing air cover for Assad's troops since 2015.

'We will work diplomatically and militarily in the coming hours to re-establish deconfliction,' said US General Joe Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, referring to the hotline.

Dunford noted that the hotline, which has been vital in protecting both US and Russian forces operating in Syria, remained in use 'over the last few hours'.

The Syrian jet was shot down on Sunday evening after regime forces engaged the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Arab and Kurdish fighters battling IS, near Raqqa.

An American F/A-18E Super Hornet shot down the Syrian SU-22 as it 'dropped bombs near SDF fighters' south of the town of Tabqa, the coalition said in a statement.

Russia's defense minister said the pilot ejected 'above IS-controlled territories' and that his fate is unknown.

Earlier Sunday, Syrian troops attacked the SDF near Tabqa, wounding several and chasing them out of town, the coalition said.

It said the warplane was shot down in line with the 'rules of engagement'.

But Damascus and regime ally Moscow condemned the 'aggression'.

The Syrian army said the plane was hit while 'conducting a mission against the terrorist Islamic State group' and warned of 'the grave consequences of this flagrant aggression'.

Russia's deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said it was a 'continuation of America's line to disregard the norms of international law'.

'What is this if not an act of aggression?'

It was the latest skirmish between the coalition and regime forces in the increasingly tense and crowded space in Syria's north and east.

The coalition backs SDF forces in their months-long bid to capture Raqqa, an operation in which the regime has not been involved.

The SDF entered Raqqa for the first time earlier this month and now holds four neighbourhoods in the east and west of the city.

Syria's army has instead turned its focus further east, to the largely IS-held oil-rich province of Deir Ezzor, where regime forces are besieged in part of the provincial capital.

It is advancing towards the region on three fronts, south of Raqqa, through the Badia desert region in central Syria, and along the eastern border.

But the advances have created conflict with the coalition, particularly along Syria's border, where the US and its allies are training an anti-IS force at the Al-Tanaf garrison.

Earlier this month, the coalition fired on pro-regime ground forces who approached the garrison and shot down a pro-regime armed drone.

Russia halted the hotline only once before, after an April 7 US cruise missile strike on a Syrian regime airbase in retaliation for a suspected chemical weapons attack that killed dozens of civilians.

Sam Heller, a Syria expert at The Century Foundation think-tank, said the regime was provoking confrontations, but neither side appeared to want a major escalation.

'I think that it was just that the regime engaged in a provocation and then a lower-rung US commander responded in self-defence,' he said of Sunday's incident.

'The regime got too close and it got burned.'

But provocations by Syria's government and its allies were a potentially risky strategy, he said.

'It doesn't look like anyone currently intends to deliberately escalate further, but when you've got these little skirmishes... the risk is that you can end up in an escalation by accident.'

On Monday morning, the area where the regime and SDF fighters clashed was quiet and the US-backed alliance was continuing to battle IS inside Raqqa, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.

Government forces meanwhile seized the town of Rusafa, south of Raqqa, a key stop on its path to Deir Ezzor and located near provincial oil and gas fields, it added.

Syria's war began in March 2011 with anti-government protests, but has since spiralled into a complex and bloody conflict that has killed more than 320,000 people.

Syria's rebels are now on the back foot after regime advances with support from allies Russia and Iran.

On Sunday, Tehran for the first time fired missiles from its territory against IS positions in Deir Ezzor.

It said the missiles were 'in retaliation' for June 7 attacks in Tehran on the parliament complex and shrine of revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini that killed 17 people and was claimed by IS.

On the diplomatic front, a fresh round of Syria peace talks in Kazakhstan's capital Astana has been scheduled for July 4-5, the Kazakh foreign ministry said.</s>Two US military officials have responded to a statement from the Russian Ministry of Defence which has been widely misreported by the mainstream media.

The section of the statement which speaks of Russia’s plans to respond to future illegal acts of aggression in Syria is as follows,

READ MORE: CONFIRMED: Russia now considers US aircrafts “targets”

Speaking for the Pentagon, Navy Captain Jeff Davis responded to the Russian statement saying,

This statement seems to imply that if the US feels threatened it could continue to attack Syrian or ostensibly Russian aircraft operating in a relatively close vicinity to US aircraft. Here too the terms relatively close are open to anyone’s interpretation, especially the US which tends to have liberal interpretations of just about everything, including geographical proximity.

The key element of this statement is the phrase, “if threatened”. This is an ambiguous term that could be used to justify attacks by US forces that could be reasonably viewed as disproportionate or downright aggressive. In all cases, such attacks on Syrian or allied forces IN SYRIA would be illegal according to international law.

America invoked the word ‘threatened’ to justify recent attacks on Syrian and allied military convoys in southern Syria near the illegal garrison the US has erected in At-Tanf.

In reality, these attacks were on convoys who were pursuing ISIS. The convoys were comprised of Syrians, moving within Syria and yet the United States felt that their garrison filled with their proxy jihadists was ‘threatened’.

The phrase ‘acting as though one is above the law’ is tailor made for such a scenario.

In each instance where the US attacked Syrian and allied convoys near At-Tanf, American officials stated that they had no desire to fire on Syrian troops, but paradoxically would do so if they felt threatened.

A similar sentiment was uttered in respect of America responding to the Russian Defence Ministry statement by Colonel Ryan Dillon, chief U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad.

This statement would appear to imply that American forces will try to avoid Russian and Syrian aircraft whilst continuing to pursue its own pro-Kurdish style of ‘fighting ISIS’, something which reflects an unspoken agreement between Russia and the US whereby the Syrian-Iranian-Russian sphere of influence will consist of Syria west of the Euphrates while the US and Kurds will essentially dominate/occupy Syrian regions east of the Euphrates.

As the Russian Defence Ministry Statement only said that Russia could shoot-down non-allied aircraft west of the Euphrates, the statements from both Russia and the US would both imply that the silent understanding has held, in spite of America’s illegal downing of a Syrian jet.

The details of this unspoken agreement was laid out in The Duran by Alexander Mercouris.

READ MORE: Following US shoot down of Syrian fighter chess game in eastern Syria turns bloody

Turning back to remarks from Jeff Davis, he further stated,

Although Davis’s initial remarks may appear more strongly worded than Dillon’s, both men are essentially saying the same thing.

They are both saying that the US will re-position its aircraft aka, fly further away from where the Syrian led coalition (which includes Russia and Iran) operates while continuing to work with Russia to avoid further conflicts.

Reports based on these statements saying anything to the contrary are at best sensationalist and at worse fake news.

However, because Davis leaves open the possibility for America to still shoot at Syrian coalition aircraft(including Russian aircraft) if the US is “threatened”, there is something of an open page on what America is actually planning.

In reality, America is probably trying to save face. America cannot look like the junior super-power in Syria to the wider public. That being said, in spite of being far more aggressive than Russia in respect of military bombast, in terms of overall control of the situation in Syria and in terms of the wider geo-political situation surrounding Syria, America is the junior super-power. The master of events in Syria is Russia and this is the real reason America is both angry and afraid.</s>WASHINGTON — Russia’s defense ministry says it will treat U.S.-led coalition planes in Syria, west of the Euphrates River, as targets after the U.S. military shot down a Syrian Air Force jet on Sunday.

Moscow has condemned the U.S. downing of the Syrian government fighter jet after it dropped bombs nears U.S. partner forces.

The Russian defense ministry says in a statement that, starting Monday, it will track all jets and drones of the U.S.-led coalition west of the Euphrates and treat them as targets.

The ministry also called on the U.S. military to provide a full account of why it decided to shoot down the Syrian SU-22.

The United States and Russia, which has been providing an air cover for Syria’s President Bashar Assad since 2015 in his offensive against the Islamic State group, have a standing agreement that should prevent in-the-air incidents involving U.S. and Russia jets engaged in operations in Syria.

The Russian defense ministry said that it was suspending the deal after the U.S. military confirmed that it downed a Syrian Air Force fighter jet on Sunday after it dropped bombs near U.S. partner forces.

The ministry says it views the incident as Washington’s “deliberate failure to make good on its commitments” under the de-confliction deal.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told Russian news agencies on Monday that the downing was akin to “helping the terrorists that the U.S. is fighting against.”

Ryabkov asks: “What is this, if not an act of aggression?”</s>MOSCOW — Warplanes from the U.S.-led coalition operating over Syrian government-controlled areas west of the Euphrates River will be tracked as potential targets, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Monday, a day after the U.S. military shot down a Syrian air force jet.

Moscow condemned the downing of the Syrian jet after it dropped bombs near the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces that are fighting the Islamic State group in Syria’s increasingly complicated civil war.

The downing of the warplane — the first time in the conflict that the U.S. has shot down a Syrian jet — came as Iran fired several ballistic missiles at IS positions in eastern Syria in retaliation for two attacks by the extremists in Tehran earlier this month that killed 17 people.

Areas of northern Syria west of the Euphrates were controlled by IS before Syrian government forces captured most of them in recent months. The Russians appear to want to avoid further U.S. targeting of Syrian warplanes or ground troops that have come under U.S. attack in eastern Syria recently.

Moscow also called on the U.S. military to provide a full accounting of why it decided to shoot down the Syrian Su-22.

Russia, a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, has been providing an air cover to the government’s offensive since 2015.

But in April, Russia briefly suspended a hotline intended to prevent midair incidents with the U.S. over Syria after the American military fired 59 missiles at a Syrian air base following a chemical weapons attack that Washington blamed on the Assad government.

The U.S. military confirmed that one of its F-18 Super Hornets shot down a Syrian Su-22 that had dropped bombs near the U.S. partner forces SDF. Those forces, which are aligned with the U.S. in the campaign against the Islamic State group, warned Syrian government troops to stop their attacks or face retaliation.

In comments to Russian news agencies, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov compared the downing to “helping the terrorists that the U.S. is fighting against.”

“What is this, if not an act of aggression?” he asked.

Viktor Ozerov, chairman of the defense and security committee at the upper chamber of Russian parliament, described the Defense Ministry’s statement as a warning.

“I’m sure that because of this neither the U.S. nor anyone else will take any actions to threaten our aircraft,” he told the state-owned RIA Novosti news agency. “That’s why there’s no threat of direct confrontation between Russia and American aircraft.”

Ozerov insisted that Russia will be tracking the coalition’s jets, not shooting them down, but he added that “a threat for those jets may appear only if they take action that pose a threat to Russian aircraft.”

Meanwhile, the U.S.-backed opposition fighters said Assad’s forces have been attacking them in the northern province of Raqqa and warned that if such attacks continue, the fighters will take action.

Clashes between Syrian troops and the SDF would escalate tensions and open a new front line in the many complex battlefields of the civil war, now in its seventh year. Clashes between the Kurdish-led SDF and Syrian forces have been rare and some rebel groups have even accused them of coordinating on the battlefield.

Both sides are battling the Islamic State group, with SDF fighters focusing on their march into the northern city of Raqqa, which the extremist group has declared to be its capital.

Government forces have also been attacking IS in northern, central and southern Syria, seizing 25,000 square kilometers (9,600 square miles) and reaching the Iraqi border for the first time in years.

SDF spokesman Talal Sillo said the government wants to thwart the SDF offensive to capture Raqqa. He said government forces began attacking SDF on Saturday, using warplanes, artillery and tanks in areas that SDF had liberated from IS.

Sillo also warned that if “the regime continues in its offensive against our positions in Raqqa province, this will force us to retaliate with force.”

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks Syria’s war, said government forces expanded their presence in Raqqa province by capturing from IS the town of Rasafa.

Iran’s launch of its ballistic missiles against IS hit Syria’s eastern city of Deir el-Zour on Sunday night and was its first such strike in the conflict. Previously, it has been providing crucial support to Assad’s forces.

Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard said it launched six Zolfaghar ballistic missiles from the western provinces of Kermanshah and Kurdistan. Video on Iranian state TV showed the weapons on truck missile launchers in the daylight before the nighttime volley.

The missiles flew over Iraq before striking what the Guard called an IS command center and suicide car bomb operation in Deir el-Zour, over 600 kilometers (370 miles) away. The extremists have been trying to fortify their positions in the Syrian city in the face of a coalition onslaught on Raqqa.

Syrian opposition activist Omar Abu Laila said two Iranian missiles fell in and near the eastern town of Mayadeen, an IS stronghold. There were casualties, said Abu Laila, who is originally from Deir el-Zour and currently lives in Germany, where he runs a website about the province.

The Islamic State group did not immediately acknowledge the attack. Iraqi lawmaker Abdul-Bari Zebari said his country agreed to the missile overflight after coordination with Iran, Russia and Syria.

Mroue reported from Beirut. Associated Press writers Nasser Karimi in Tehran and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed.
After yesterday's downing of a Syrian Su-22 jet, Russia shuts down a deconfliction channel and says it will follow any aircraft west of the Euphrates as a target.