Rebels shoot down second Syrian jet in a month

AMMAN Islamist rebels shot down a warplane on Tuesday in an area south of the city of Aleppo where insurgents are battling the Syrian army and allied militias, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.


The monitor said a plume of smoke was seen as the plane caught fire before it fell in the Talat al-Iss highland, where al Qaeda-affiliated rebels have come under heavy bombardment by Syrian and Russian planes since they captured the area this week.


The fate of the pilot was not known nor the type of aircraft and whether it was Russian or Syrian, the British-based monitor said.


Videos downloaded on social media also showed footage of the plane and pictures of the wreckage of a burnt plane surrounded by rebels.


Aerial supremacy has been a major advantage for the Syrian army that has been battling insurgents seeking to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad.


Foreign-backed rebels have long demanded anti-aircraft weapons to offset the impact of devastating aerial raids by Syrian forces and since September Russian planes, but their backers have been wary of delivering weapons that could fall into the hands of hardline groups.


A fragile "cessation of hostilities" truce has held in Syria for over a month as the various parties try to negotiate an end to the five-year-old civil war.


But the truce excludes Islamic State and Nusra Front, and air and land attacks by Syrian and allied forces continue in parts of Syria where the government says the groups are present.


(Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi, Editing by Angus MacSwan)




The Most Influential Scientific Minds
Using citation analysis to identify authors whose papers wield outsized influence

• Global Innovation in 2015
• The Year in Biopharma