'Russian pilot killed' after fighter jet shot down over Syria
A Russian pilot who ejected from his fighter jet after it was shot down in Syria has been killed by militants after he landed on the ground and resisted capture by an al Qaida-linked group, Syrian monitors and a Syrian militant said.
Moscow did not confirm the downing of its plane or the killing of a pilot in Syria.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Russian pilot was dead but had no further details.
A Syrian militant in the area told The Associated Press that the Russian pilot was shot and killed when he resisted capture by opening fire from his pistol on the militants who tried to seize him alive.
According to the Observatory, the plane was downed on Saturday afternoon in the rebel-held Idlib province, near the rebel-held town of Saraqeb, which Syrian troops have been trying to take under the cover of Russian air strikes.
Russia is a key ally of President Bashar Assad, and has been waging a military campaign on behalf of his forces since 2015.
Since then, Syrian government forces have captured wide parts of the country and in recent weeks have been marching in the rebel-held north-western province of Idlib. The province is also a base for al Qaida's branch in Syria and other Islamic groups.
The opposition's Aleppo Media Centre said the plane was a Russian-made SU25 but did not say whether it was Russian.
Earlier in the day, the Observatory and the media arm of al Qaida-linked militants reported intense air strikes on the rebel-held stronghold.
The Observatory reported more than 35 air strikes on Saraqeb since late Friday, adding that many of its residents are fleeing.
The Ibaa News Agency, of the al Qaida-linked Levant Liberation Committee, said Russian and Syrian warplanes and helicopter gunships have been pounding Saraqeb and Tel Mardeekh in Idlib since the early hours of Saturday.
Syria's state news agency, SANA, said Syrian troops captured the village of Maasaran as well as the Tel Tokan hill, cutting links between Saraqeb and the rebel-stronghold of Maarest al-Numan to the south.
In recent weeks, Syrian government forces and their allies pushed into Idlib, an opposition stronghold, inching closer to a key road that connects Syria's two largest cities, Damascus and Aleppo.
The UN says more than 270,000 have been displaced in Idlib because of the government onslaught since December 15.
The violence in Idlib came as fighting raged between Turkish troops and Turkey-backed opposition gunmen with Syrian Kurdish fighters in the northern Syrian enclave of Afrin.
The Turkish military said two of its soldiers were killed in Syria and a third was killed on the Turkish side of the border in an attack by Syrian Kurdish militiamen.
The military said Saturday's deaths were related to Turkey's operation against the Syrian Kurdish-held enclave of Afrin, codenamed Olive Branch. One of the soldiers was killed when a Turkish tank was hit in Afrin.
A total of eight Turkish soldiers and at least 24 allied Syrian opposition fighters have died so far in Ankara's offensive, which started on January 20.
The Turkish operation aims to clear Afrin of the US-backed Syrian Kurdish militia, known as the People's Protection Units or YPG, which Turkey considers to be a terrorist group and an extension of the Kurdish insurgency within its borders.
