Russia stops cooperation after US downs Syrian jet

Russia on June 19 warned it would track U.S.-led coalition aircraft in central Syria as "targets" and halted an incident-prevention hotline with Washington after U.S.forces downed a Syrian jet.

Moscow has only once before suspended the hotline, which was established in October 2015 to prevent conflict between the different forces operating in Syrian airspace.

The shootdown incident and Russia's response further complicate Syria's six-year war and come as the U.S.-led coalition and allied fighters battle to oust the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) from its Syrian bastion Raqqa.

Russia's foreign ministry accused Washington of failing to use the hotline before downing the plane near Raqqa, and called for a "careful investigation by the U.S. command" into the incident

"Any flying objects, including planes and drones of the international coalition, discovered west of the Euphrates River will be tracked as aerial targets by Russia's air defenses on and above ground," Russian foreign ministry warned.

The Syrian jet was shot down on June 18 evening after regime forces engaged members of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance battling with U.S. support against ISIL, in an area close to Raqqa.

The American F/A-18E Super Hornet shot down the Syrian SU-22 around 7 p.m. as it "dropped bombs near SDF fighters" south of the town of Tabqa, the coalition said in a statement.

It said that several hours earlier, regime forces had attacked the SDF in another town near Tabqa, wounding several and driving the SDF from the town.

The coalition said the Syrian warplane had been shot down "in accordance with rules of engagement and in collective self-defense of Coalition partnered forces."