Russia strikes back as militants claim shooting down of fighter jet, death of pilot
© Omar Haj
Kadour/AFP/Getty Image
Smoke billows from the site of a downed Russian Sukhoi-25 fighter jet
in Saraqeb, Syria. The pilot was killed after he
ejected and exchanged gunfire with militants on the ground, the
Russian Defense Ministry and a monitoring group.
Hayat
Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, a powerful rebel alliance that publicly split
from al-Qaeda last year, said it had used a man-portable antiaircraft
system to shoot down the Su-25 fighter jet as it flew low over the
opposition-held town of Saraqeb.
That
claim was echoed by Russia's Interfax news agency, quoting the
Defense Ministry, as well as the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for
Human Rights.
The
incident could raise tensions between Russia and Turkey, which is
monitoring a so-called "de-escalation zone" in the northern
province of Idlib as part of an agreement made during Syrian peace
talks in the Kazakh capital, Astana.
It
also raises questions about the source of the apparent MANPADS, a
weapon for which Syria's rebels have repeatedly pleaded from their
international backers. The United States in particular has been
strongly opposed, fearing that antiaircraft weapons could fall into
the hands of the country's extremist groups.
Saraqeb
has come under heavy bombardment from Russian and Syrian warplanes in
recent days as pro-government forces try to recapture a strategic
highway linking Damascus to Aleppo. The White Helmets civil defense
group said Saturday that seven civilians had been killed in at least
25 strikes on largely residential areas, some of them using barrel
bombs.
In
the hours after the Russian jet was downed, Moscow also claimed to
have killed more than 30 militants in the area, Interfax reported.
The agency quoted the defense ministry as saying it used
"precision-guided weapons" to carry out the strike, but
without giving details.
The
use of MANPADS in a province where Turkish forces are nominally
present could also anger Russia. The two countries have improved ties
and cooperated in Syria in recent months, but relations hit an
all-time low in 2015, when Turkey, a longtime supporter of the
country's rebels, also shot down a Russian warplane inside Syria.
Related:
Syrian Rebels Shoot Down Russian Plane, Kill Pilot, Moscow Retaliates
(Provided by Wochit)
Click
to expand
"Syrian
Rebels Shoot Down Russian Plane, Kill Pilot, Moscow Retaliates"
will play after this ad - 00:10
Turkey
set up observation points in Idlib last year, ostensibly to monitor
the fighting between the rebels and government forces, but it has
also been accused of fostering closer ties with HTS.
Moscow
entered Syria's civil war in 2015 on the side of President Bashar
al-Assad. And its intervention turned the tide of the brutal war,
allowing Syria's government to recapture the city of Aleppo from the
rebels and beat back militants in other parts of the country.
But
Idlib remains under militant control, and HTS exercises significant
influence even over areas it does not formally hold.
"Mahmoud
Turkmani, the military commander of the HTS air defence battalion,
managed to shoot down a military plane by an anti-aircraft MANPADS in
the sky of Saraqeb in the Idlib countryside in late afternoon today,"
Ebaa News, the unofficial media outlet used by HTS, reported
Saturday.
"That
is the least revenge we can offer to our people and those occupiers
should know that our sky is not a picnic," Mahmoud reportedly
said.
Idlib
province is also home to more than a million displaced people from
around Syria, and renewed fighting has pushed close to a quarter of a
million residents to flee again since mid-December, cramming into
already-packed houses and tented settlements across the region.
Despite
repeated appeals to their international backers, rebel groups in
Syria have never had a sustained supply of MANPADS. But they have
occasionally used individual weapons captured from the battlefield.
Rebels forces have shot down Syrian fighter jets and other Russian
military aircraft. In August 2016, a Russian transport
helicopter was shot down as it was flying over Saraqeb, killing
all five people aboard.
Videos
circulating online showed the alleged crash site of the fighter jet
in Idlib's Saraqeb, which the United Nations said has recently
suffered "heavy shelling and aerial bombardment." According
to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, an
airstrike on a potato market there earlier this week killed at least
16 people, and the town's hospital was also attacked.
Both
Russia and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said
that the pilot Saturday was killed after exchanging fire with the
rebels. He was able to communicate that he had ejected from the
aircraft in an area held by HTS, but later "died in a fight with
the terrorists," Russia's Defense Ministry said. The ministry
also said it was working with Turkey to bring the pilot's body home.
Syria's
war has raged for seven years, and half a million people have been
killed. The conflict has sucked in world powers — like Russia —
but also the United States and Iran.
No comments:
Post a Comment