Australia has “temporarily” suspended air combat missions over war-ravaged Syria after Russia threatened to treat U.S.-led coalition warplanes flying west of the Euphrates River as hostile targets, declared the Australian Department of Defense.
“As a precautionary measure, Australian defense force [ADF] strike operations into Syria have temporarily ceased,” the Australian Department of Defense said on Tuesday, reports the Guardian.
Australia has reportedly contributed six warplanes based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) in Syria and Iraq.
“Australian defense force personnel are closely monitoring the air situation in Syria, and a decision on the resumption of ADF air operations in Syria will be made in due course,” a spokesman for Australia’s defense department told the country’s ABC news outlet.
The Kremlin’s recent threat came in response to the U.S. downing a Syrian warplane for the first time on Sunday.
“All kinds of airborne vehicles, including aircraft and UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] of the international coalition, detected to the west of the Euphrates River will be tracked by the Russian SAM [surface-to-air missiles] systems as air targets,” warned the Russian foreign ministry.
Echoing threats made by Moscow following the U.S. attack on a Syrian airbase in April, Russia also said it would suspend its communication channel with American troops, which is intended to prevent collisions and dangerous indents over Syria.
Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, insisted that the “deconfliction channel” between the U.S. military and its Russian counterpart, established eight months ago, is still operating.
The possibility of a direct Russian-American confrontation in Syria intensified after the U.S. shot down the warplane affiliated with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad on Sunday.
Military support from Russia and Iran has kept Assad afloat.
In its warning on Monday, Russia stressed, “Repeated combat actions by U.S. aviation under the cover of counterterrorism against lawful armed forces of a country that is a member of the U.N. are a massive violation of international law and de facto a military aggression against the Syrian Arab Republic.”
U.S.-led coalition aircraft will be “tracked by the Russian ground and air anti-aircraft defense systems as air targets in the areas where Russian aviation is on combat missions in the Syrian sky,” it added.
Before the American forces shot down the Syrian plane, the pilot was able to eject, the U.S. military has said.
“The attack stresses coordination between the US and ISIS, and it reveals the evil intentions of the US in administering terrorism and investing it to pass the US-Zionist project in the region,” proclaimed the Assad regime after the incident.
According to the United States, its aircraft fired on the Assad plane in defense of American-backed troops seeking to capture Raqqa, the Islamic State’s (ISIS/ISIL) de facto capital in Syria.
Tensions between the United States and the Syrian regime, including its Iranian-backed allies, have escalated in recent months.
The United States military has been recently forced to repeatedly fire on Iranian-backed Shiite militias fighting on behalf of Assad in Syria to keep them away from American troops.
This month, pro-Assad Shiite militiamen fired on American troops in Syria for the first time.
“The Coalition’s mission is to defeat ISIS in Iraq and Syria,” U.S. Marine Maj. Adrian Rankine-Galloway, a Pentagon spokesman, told Breitbart News last week. “The Coalition presence in Syria addresses the imminent threat ISIS in Syria poses globally. The Coalition does not seek to fight Syrian regime, Russian or pro-regime forces partnered with them, but is well prepared to defend itself from hostile threats if necessary.”
While the U.S. military has clashed with Iran-allied paramilitary groups in Syria, it is working with their counterparts in Iraq.
Shiite militiamen in both countries are fighting against Sunni ISIS jihadists.
The United States insists that it is “strictly” vetting Shiite militiamen receiving American support for ties to terrorism and the Iranian government, as required by law.
American troops have been fighting against ISIS in Iraq alongside the Baghdad-sanctioned Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), a group of predominantly Iranian-allied Shiite militiamen that is also known as the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and Hashd al-Shaabi.
PMU forces in Iraq are reportedly trying to establish a supply route along the country’s border with Syria that will allow them to link up with their Iran-allied counterparts there, a move that would benefit Assad.
Meanwhile, Iran-backed Shiite fighters in Syria are trying to seize control of supply routes through the war-devastated country — between Iran and Lebanon — currently controlled by ISIS.
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