US military downs suspected Iran-made drone over Syrian oil site

The US military has shot down a drone, allegedly made by Iran, as it was said to have conducted surveillance over a major oil site in northeastern Syria.

"On February 14th, at approximately 2:30 PM local time, US forces in Syria engaged and shot down an Iranian-manufactured UAV attempting to conduct reconnaissance of Mission Support Site Conoco, a patrol base in northeast Syria," Newsweek reports, citing US Central Command said in a statement.

Both the US and Iran operate counterterrorism missions in Syria, though the Pentagon supports a Kurdish-led group known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, which leads an autonomous government in northeastern Syria, while Tehran coordinates with the central government in Damascus.

While Iran has joined the Syrian government, led by President Bashar al-Assad, as well as his fellow ally Russia, in accusing the US of exploiting the country's natural resources through a military presence the trio has deemed illegitimate, the US has charged Iran with seeking to expand its influence in Syria through support for militias that have previously targeted US forces.

Iran's drone program has also drawn fire from the US due to the appearance of Iranian-produced loitering munitions, also called "kamikaze" or "suicide" drones, in Russia's war in Ukraine.

Addressing the collapse of diplomacy over the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal abandoned by the US in 2018, US State Department spokesperson Ned Price cited Iran's defence ties with Russia, along with its crackdown on protests and incarceration of US citizens, as factors influencing Washington's refusal to return to the negotiating table during a press briefing earlier February 14.

"We're sending very clear messages to the Iranian regime," Price said. "Those messages are: Stop killing your own people, stop sending UAV technology to Russia, and free those wrongfully detained American citizens."

Iran, meanwhile, has faced drone attacks on its own soil, including a strike conducted late last month apparently by quadcopters. The Islamic Republic has blamed the incident on its top foe, Israel, also the US' closest ally in the Middle East, and announced Friday the arrest of suspects involved in the operation.

US forces have also recently engaged multiple objects within the country's own airspace this month, the first of which has been deemed a high-altitude spy balloon from China that flew for several days over US territory before meeting a dramatic end off the coast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, on February 4.

Three more objects, the origin and purpose of which have yet to be determined, were shot down on February 10 over Alaska, February 11 over Canada's Yukon Territory and February 12 over Lake Huron.