 U.S. shoots down Iranian-made drone U.S. forces in northeast Syria have shot down an unmanned aerial vehicle UAV that the Pentagon claims was an Iranian-made drone conducting reconnaissance of an American military base. The drone was brought down over the Canoko gas field, home of Syria's largest gas processing plant, according to a statement by U.S. Central Command, CENTCOM. American troops control a large swath of Syria, containing most of the war-torn country's oil and gas resources, since seizing the territory from Islamic State terrorists in 2017. CENTCOM did not specify how it identified the drone as Iranian-made. The U.S. has hundreds of troops deployed in Syria, purportedly on a counter terrorism mission. The deployment, however, violates Syria's serenity as Damascus has never given its approval for U.S. troops to enter the country and has repeatedly demanded that they leave. The Canoko field is named after Canoko Phillips, the U.S. energy company that developed and operated the concession until 2005. The Canoko gas plant can reportedly produce nearly 50 million cubic feet of gas per day. U.S. forces at the Canoko field and Al-Omar, Syria's largest oil field, have repeatedly come under attacks over the years. Last month, the U.S. base at Canoko was reportedly targeted by rocket fire. The latest incident comes as Syria tries to dig out from the massive earthquakes that struck southern Turkey and western Syria on February 6. More than 41,000 people were killed by the quakes, including over 1,400 deaths confirmed by the authorities in Damascus and another 4,400 reported deaths in territories under control of the western-backed rebels. U.S. sanctions have hindered efforts to send remittance to Syria, despite Washington's decision last week to temporarily exempt earthquake aid from its measures.