Story highlights A Pentagon spokesman stated: "Russia has been very helpful"

On Thursday a US F-15E jet shot down an Iranian-made Shahed 129 drone

(CNN) US officials are crediting Russia with helping calm the situation in southern Syria, where the US has had to launch several airstrikes against Iranian backed Shia militias and pro-regime fighters in recent days.

Pentagon spokesman US Navy Captain Jeff Davis stated: "Russia has been very helpful and I think the calm that we see today is largely due to their efforts."

The incidents marked an escalation in the area around Al-Tanf, a garrison on the Syrian-Jordanian border manned by US and British Special Forces that are advising an anti-ISIS Syrian rebel group known as Maghawir al-Thawra, or the Commandos of the Revolution.

But the Pentagon is also stressing that it wants to remain focused on defeating ISIS and doesn't want to be diverted from its primary mission. "We are in Syria to defeat ISIS full-stop, anything else we do there is in self-defense only. We do not seek conflict with the Syrian regime or with these pro-regime militias or Iranian proxy forces," Davis said.

The US has been using its so called de-confliction communications line with Russia to request they call militias on the ground and get them to move to less threatening positions. A 55 kilometer de-confliction zone has been established around the garrison. While the zone has no formal legal standing, the US has dropped leaflets and passed messages via the Russians. Davis said there had been multiple contacts with Russia, including at senior military levels.

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