Fighter jets
Fighter jetsiStock

A fighter-bomber jet of the US-led coalition in Syria came "dangerously" close to a Russian surveillance aircraft over Homs province on Sunday, Reuters reported, citing Russia's TASS state news agency.

The US has 900 troops in Syria and 2,500 in neighboring Iraq on a mission to advise and assist local forces trying to prevent a resurgence of Islamic State (ISIS).

"A coalition F/A-18 fighter-bomber came into dangerous contact with an An-30 aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces, which was carrying out a scheduled flight in Syrian airspace," TASS quoted Captain Oleg Ignasyuk, deputy head of the Russian Center for Reconciliation of Opposing Sides in Syria, as saying.

"The Russian crew, demonstrating high professionalism, promptly took the necessary measures to prevent a collision."

The incident took place over the al-Tanf region of Homs, TASS said.

Reuters was not able to independently verify the report. The US Department of Defense has not immediately responded to a request for comment.

Russia has been conducting air strikes in Syria since September 2015, in support of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, its close ally.

While Russia said it was attacking the Islamic State (ISIS), Western officials claimed Moscow was also targeting so-called "moderate" rebel groups fighting ISIS.

The Assad regime, with Russian and Iranian support, has clawed back much of the ground lost early in Syria's conflict which erupted in 2011.

Russia has over the years repeatedly struck Syria's last pocket of armed opposition to the regime in the northwest.

ISIS overran large swathes of Syria and neighboring Iraq in 2014, proclaiming a "caliphate" in land it controlled.

Several military offensives, including those backed by the US-led international coalition, have since seen ISIS lose most areas it once controlled, including the loss of their de facto capital in Raqqa, Syria.

However, ISIS sleeper calls remain in the area continue to carry out deadly attacks in Syria and Iraq.