Syrian rebel groups claim a Russian pilot was killed after his plane was shot down.
"Killing of a Russian pilot in Latakia province at the hands of the revolutionaries ... and the search is ongoing for the second pilot," the Tenth Coastal Brigade rebel group wrote on its Twitter and Facebook pages.
A legal adviser to the Free Syrian Army rebel alliance confirmed that the pilot had been killed. It was not yet clear how he died, Osama Abou Zeid said.
Reuters reported a video from a Syrian rebel group appeared to show a Russian pilot immobile and badly wounded on the ground, and an official from the group saying he was dead.
"A Russian pilot," a voice is heard saying as a group of men gather around him. "God is great," a voice is heard saying.
The video was sent to Reuters by a rebel group operating in the northwestern area of Syria.
The official from the group, who declined to be named for security reasons, said the pilot was dead.
He did not mention a second Russian pilot who was in the plane.
The rebel group says the Russian fighter jet crew member was hit by rebel fire as he tried to guide his parachute towards government-held territory.
"During their fall, they tried repeatedly to direct their parachutes to arrive on land controlled by the dictator Bashar al-Assad," said Jabir Ahmad, spokesman of the brigade, in a Facebook message to the DPA news agency.
Ahmad said "our men of the Tenth Coastal Brigade machine gun company were able to hit him before he got away and his corpse fell in the liberated area".
Share
