The US lost contact with an unarmed MQ-1 Predator drone on Tuesday.
Though Pentagon officials could not confirm whether the aircraft was shot down or crashed because of a failure, the Syrian SANA news agency reported that the unmanned aerial vehicle was shot down in the Latakia province by the Syrian air defenses.
Drone downed near Latakia Syria!!! American,European,Israelian? @Tom_Antonov@green_lemonnn@towersight@secretdifa3pic.twitter.com/XkhqhJRNse
— kitadica (@KitadicaCool) March 17, 2015Indeed, images of the wreckage of an aerial vehicle were later posted on social media: provided the photographs were really taken at the crash site, they show parts of the UAV (including a wheel of the landing gear) along with parts of what seems to be the body an S-125 Neva/Pechora (NATO reporting name SA-3 Goa) Soviet surface-to-air missile system: this may confirm the version of the Syrian State Media according to which the MQ-1, most probably operating out of Incirlik airbase, in Turkey, was shot down.
The event is interesting for several reasons:
1. It proves US drones perform ISR (intelligence surveillance reconnaissance) missions in a region (on the western coast of Syria) close to but outside the areas of the airstrikes targeting the Islamic State. Monitoring jihadist activities in the area? Keeping an eye on the fighting between rebels and loyalist forces? Monitoring shipments that reach Syria via sea?
2. A shooting down of the drone would show that Assad fires back and that Syrian air defenses can pose a threat to manned and unmanned aircraft that operate inside the Syrian airspace.
3. The area in which the drone was allegedly shot down is the same in which a Turkish RF-4E jet was shot down by a coastal air defense battery.
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