Canberra: Australia's defence chief says Australian F/A-18F Super Hornets will soon resume airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Syria after operations were suspended as precaution because a U.S. fighter jet shot down a Syrian warplane earlier this week.

Australian Defense Force Chief Mark Binskin says the six Australian warplanes suspended operations in Syria while the Australians examined what was happening in what he had described as a "complex piece of airspace" over Syria.

He told reporters in the Australian capital Canberra: "It won't be long before you start to see the operations again."

Binskin says the warplanes had been occupied recently supporting Iraqi security forces in retaking the city of Mosul.