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Syria-Lebanon-Iran | |||
ISIS claims downed combat jet | |||
2016-04-24 | |||
BEIRUT: Daesh terrorists on Friday captured a Syrian pilot alive after shooting down his plane east of Damascus, the Daesh-affiliated Amaq news agency said. Amaq gave the pilot’s name as Azzam Eid, from Hama. It said Daesh fighters had shot down his plane and found him alive after he parachuted down to the crash site. A video posted by Amaq showed the charred remains of a plane, some parts still on fire, lying on a vast desert plain. Several apparent Daesh fighters in military-style fatigues circle around the wreckage, pointing to the two-starred Syrian government flag clearly visible on one of the wings. Syrian state news agency SANA had no immediate news on it.
The head of a Britain-based monitoring group said the escalating violence meant a cease-fire between the regime and rebels, in place since late February, had effectively collapsed. Twelve civilians were killed in air strike on the northern metropolis of Aleppo on Saturday, a local civil defence official said. The Syrian Human Rights Observatory said 13 others died in shelling of the rebel-held town of Douma, while two men were killed in regime airstrikes on Talbisseh in central Homs province. The United States and its allies targeted Daesh militants in Iraq with 20 strikes on Friday and 10 in Syria, the US military said on Saturday.
Earlier in the day, Russia's Interfax news agency said the plane crashed because of a technical fault. It quoted a Syrian military source as saying that the crashed plane had recently undergone repairs while there was no attack from the ground, adding that "it crashed because of a technical fault." The report also identified the plane as a Mig-23. | |||
Posted by:badanov |