USAF F/A-18 Fighter Shoots Syrian Su-22 Jet On Bombing Mission, Pilot Missing

A USAF F/A-18 fighter jet, part of the US-led coalition shot down a Syrian Air Force Su-22 on a bombing mission against anti-government forces.

The US led coalition said that it dropped bombs on American backed forces fighting Islamic State (IS) in northern Syria. The Syrian Army however said that its jet was on a combat mission when it was hit, Al Jazeera reported Monday.

"At 6:43pm (17L43 GMT), a Syrian regime SU-22 dropped bombs near SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces) fighters south of Tabqa and, in accordance with rules of engagement and in collective self-defence of Coalition partnered forces, was immediately shot down by a US F/A-18E Super Hornet," the Combined Joint Task Force said in a statement.

Earlier on Sunday, the Syrian army said that "the so-called international alliance today noon targeted the jet over the area of al-Rasafa in the southern countryside of al-Raqqa while it was on a combat mission against the terrorist Daesh", Arabi News said.

The pilot of the jet went missing after this "flagrant aggression", the army's command added in a statement, according to Syria's state news agency SANA.