Syria claims downing of US drone after take-off from Turkey

Syria's military shot down a U.S. drone over the coastal province of Latakia, a stronghold of President Bashar al-Assad, state media said March 17.

Military sources speaking to Hürriyet said that the drone was an unarmed Predator, which took off from the ?ncirlik base in the southern Turkish province of Adana.
  
If confirmed, this would be the first time Syrian forces have attacked a U.S. aircraft since the coalition fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) began raids against the jihadist group in Syria in September.   
  
Syrian state news agency SANA reporting the downing of a U.S. drone in a breaking news alert on March 17 evening.
  

"Syrian air defences brought down a hostile U.S. surveillance aircraft over north Latakia," it said, without providing further details.
 
  
While Syria is not participating in these strikes, it has so far refrained from taking action against aircraft involved in the coalition's operations.
  
Damascus has said it was given prior warning before the coalition began the strikes, and Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said last year that Washington had pledged its strikes would not hit the Syrian army.
  
The strikes in Syria have largely been focused on Aleppo and Raqa provinces, where ISIL has strongholds.
  
But the campaign has also targeted the group elsewhere, and hit positions believed to belong to fighters affiliated with Al-Nusra Front, the Syrian wing of Al-Qaeda.
  
ISIL fighters have been largely absent from the northwestern province of Latakia, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor.
  
But Al-Nusra fighters are active in the province, which is home to the Assad family's...