The Baghdad Post, 20 June 2017 – 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, according to the Daily Mail.

‘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.