Accessibility links

Breaking News

Islamic State Claims Capture of Syrian Pilot


Syria
Syria

The Islamic State terrorist group has captured the pilot of a Syrian warplane that crashed southeast of Damascus on Friday, a news agency affiliated with the militant group said.

"The pilot, called Azzam Eid, from Hama, was captured after he fell by parachute near the site where his plane crashed east of Damascus," the Aamaq agency said.

The agency posted a video online that purported to show the wreckage of the MiG-23 plane, which it said had been shot down by anti-aircraft weapons.

The footage showed Islamic State fighters around burning plane wreckage, part of which had a Syrian flag painted on it.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group confirmed that a Syrian plane had crashed in the Damascus countryside after flying over territory controlled by Islamic State. But it could not say whether the aircraft had been shot down or what had happened to the pilot.

There was no comment from the Syrian government on the downing of the plane or the claim by Islamic State of the capture of the pilot.

  • 16x9 Image

    VOA News

    The Voice of America provides news and information in more than 40 languages to an estimated weekly audience of over 326 million people. Stories with the VOA News byline are the work of multiple VOA journalists and may contain information from wire service reports.

XS
SM
MD
LG