Hardline Ahrar Al Sham says it shot down warplane over northern Syria

The rebel group, which fights alongside Al Qaeda affiliate Jabhat Al Nusra, said the plane 'was conducting air strikes' over the town of Al Eis.

Syrian state television said the warplane was shot down on Tuesday with a surface-to-air missile while on a reconnaissance mission over the northern province of Aleppo. Omar Haj Kadour/AFP

ALEPPO // Hardline Syrian rebel group Ahrar Al Sham said it shot down a warplane over northern Syria on Tuesday, with the pilot captured.

The group, which fights alongside Al Qaeda affiliate Jabhat Al Nusra, said it “shot down a warplane that was conducting air strikes” over the town of Al Eis.

Earlier, a rebel source confirmed that a regime warplane had been shot down, but said it was likely by fighters from Al Nusra. The source said the pilot had been taken alive.

Video footage circulating on social media showed the scene where the plane came down, with a dozen men crowding around a man lying in the dirt.

Some of them shout, “He’s Syrian, he’s Syrian!”, while others yell, “Get his weapons off him!”.

Ahrar Al Sham is allied with Al Nusra across swathes of northern and north-west Syria in a coalition called “Army of Conquest”.

Syrian state television said the warplane was shot down on Tuesday with a surface-to-air missile while on a reconnaissance mission over the northern province of Aleppo, adding that the pilot ejected and “work is ongoing to rescue him.”

The downing of the warplane and latest fighting and shelling in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and former commercial centre, threaten to undermine a US-Russia-brokered ceasefire that has largely held since February 27.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the pilot was captured by Al Nusra members, who took him to one of their offices in the area. The Local Coordination Committees said the warplane was a Sukhoi 22.

In Moscow, defence ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said no Russian warplanes flew over Aleppo on Tuesday.

Syrian rebels have shot down several Syrian warplanes since the country’s crisis began in March 2011. Last month, rebels shot down a regime warplane over the village of Kafr Nabuda in the central province of Hama.

Russian warplanes have been carrying out air strikes in Syria since September. Syrian militants have not downed any Russian planes. Turkey, however, shot down one Russian aircraft last year.

Al Nusra was also implicated in shelling of the predominantly Kurdish Sheikh Maqsoud neighbourhood in Aleppo on Tuesday.

The Observatory and other activists said insurgents, including Al Nusra, shelled the neighbourhood amid broader clashes between militants and Kurdish fighters. The Observatory said 14 were killed.

Sheikh Maqsoud is on the northern edge of Aleppo and has been repeatedly targeted by militants over the past few months amid fighting on its outskirts.

In eastern Syria, ISIL attacked a government airbase near the city of Deir El Zour close to the Iraqi border, according to the Observatory.

The fighting in Deir El Zour province came a day after rebels captured two villages in Aleppo province from ISIL.

The fighting came as United Nations envoy on Syria, Staffan de Mistura, met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on Tuesday as he looked to lay the groundwork for peace talks expected to resume next week.

The visit came as the UN said the talks will likely restart in Geneva on April 11, but that regime negotiators would only arrive several days later, after the completion of parliamentary elections in the country.

* Agence France-Presse, Associated Press