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A U.S. aircraft reportedly shot down an armed unmanned aerial vehicle after it fired on “coalition forces” in al-Tanf, in southern Syria, in the Iraq – Jordan – Syria tri-border region on June 8. The U.S. Defense Department considers the area with undefined parameters as a deconfliction zone, not to be confused with the de-escalation zones established after Russian, Turkish, Iranian and “opposition” talks in Astana.

A U.S. aircraft reportedly shot down an armed unmanned aerial vehicle after it fired on “coalition forces” in al-Tanf, in southern Syria, in the Iraq – Jordan – Syria tri-border region on June 8. The U.S. Defense Department considers the area with undefined parameters as a deconfliction zone, not to be confused with the de-escalation zones established after Russian, Turkish, Iranian and “opposition” talks in Astana.

The “coalition” stated that the air strike was conducted to protect Syrian rebels and coalition forces against Syrian Arab Army and allied forces. A statement was released, saying “The pro-regime UAV, similar in size to a U.S. MQ-1 Predator, was shot down by a U.S. aircraft after it dropped one of several weapons it was carrying near a position occupied by Coalition personnel who are training and advising partner ground forces in the fight against ISIS.” The engagement follows incidents on May 18 and on June 6. On May 18, according to USCENTCOM, the coalition carried out air strikes against an “Iranian controlled unit” that was “threatening coalition forces” in Al-Tanf, Syria. On June 6, at 17:40 a similar incident occurred, and USCENTCOM claimed again the right to “self-defense”.

o advise and assist the Syrian Army in an attempt to root out the country’s terrorist insurgency. A focus of the Chinese elite unit will be on Chinese Islamist foreign fighters, who have shown up in increasing numbers in Syria’s north since the start of the US/Saudi intervention in Syria.

f confirmed this won’t be the first time China – one of the five veto-wielding powers of the UN Security Council – has sent assistance to the Assad government: according to previous reporting by Middle East Eye, China began quietly sending soldiers in an advisory capacity into Syria earlier this year to assist government forces in weapons systems, intelligence collection, logistics, and medicine. But this certainly marks a dramatic and more public escalation in terms of Chinese operations in the region as Beijing will reportedly send special forces to work closely with government troops, and likely in coordination with the Russians as well. Sources told the Saudi Arabia based newspaper New Khaleej that the Chinese Ministry of Defense intends to send two units known as the “Tigers of Siberia” and the “Night Tigers” – both elite special operations units – to assist the Syrian government’s fight against the jihadist insurgency. The news follows a high level meeting last week in China between Syrian Presidential Advisor Bouthaina Shaaban and Chinese Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who praised Damascus’ efforts in fighting foreign militants from the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM, also commonly called the Turkestan Islamic Party, or TIP). The Muslim separatist group was founded by ethnic Uighurs and is based in the Xinjiang province of northwest China.