BEIRUT: An American fighter jet has for the first time downed a Syrian warplane that Washington accused of attacking US-backed fighters, in a new escalation between the United States and regime forces.

The incident further complicates the country’s six-year war and comes as a US-led coalition and allied fighters battle to oust the militant Islamic State group from its Syrian bastion Raqa.

Government ally Iran also on Sunday launched missiles from its territory against alleged IS positions in eastern Syria for the first time, in response to an IS-claimed attack in Tehran.

Analysts say neither Washington nor President Bashar al-Assad’s regime appear to be seeking further confrontation, but warn that the risks are high in Syria’s increasingly crowded battlefields.

The Syrian jet was shot down on Sunday evening after regime forces engaged fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance battling with US support against IS, in an area close to Raqa.

The American F/A-18E Super Hornet shot down the Syrian SU-22 around 7:00 pm as it “dropped bombs near SDF fighters” south of the town of Tabqa, the coalition said in a statement.

It said that several hours earlier, regime forces had attacked the SDF in another town near Tabqa, wounding several and driving the SDF from the town.

The coalition said the Syrian warplane had been shot down “in accordance with rules of engagement and in collective self-defence of Coalition partnered forces”.

Published in Dawn, June 20th, 2017