ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A Syrian warplane was shot down in the town of Al-Eis in Syria's Aleppo province on Tuesday, with the pilot captured alive by jihadi forces. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor reported that Islamist and rebel battalions had shot down the plane. The al-Qaeda affiliated al-Nusra Front captured the pilot and took him to its area headquarters, it said. A rebel source cited by AFP also said that it was "likely that the al-Nusra Front shot down the plane and took the pilot." Nusra reportedly was able to down the plane using heavy machine guns. The plane was a Russian-made Su-22 fighter-attack plane. "The jet does not belong to Russian Aerospace Defense Forces. According to preliminary information, it was a Su-22 of the Syrian Air Force," a military-diplomatic source told Russia's TASS news on Tuesday. While a US-Russian brokered ceasefire has been in place in Syria since February 27, it has excluded both Nusra and Islamic State (ISIS). Russia and Syria continue to bomb both. Other opposition groups fear that they will continue to be bombed regardless of the ceasefire, given the fact that Nusra is well entrenched in many opposition-held areas.
