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Extremists from radical group Islamic State (IS) on Tuesday brought down a Syrian regime warplane in their stronghold of Raqa, monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
“IS fighters fired on a military aircraft which crashed. It is the first aircraft shot down since the regime launched air strikes against the jihadists in July following their declaration of a caliphate in late June”, the Britain-based group, which relies on a network of activists and doctors in Syria, said.
Rami Abdel Rahman, the Observatory’s director, said that the plane was conducting strikes in Raqa when it was struck down. It crashed in the Euphrates Valley city, the only provincial capital which isn’t under the Syrian regime’s control, causing injuries and deaths on the ground, Rahman added.
The plane is not the first Syrian government airplane to be shot down by rebel forces, but this is the first to be shot down after the Syrian regime stepped up its campaign against the IS.
In recent weeks, they have targeted IS strongholds in the provinces of Deir Ezzor and Raqa and other extremist-held areas in the province of Hasakeh.
Strikes on an IS camp in the town of Tibni in Deir Ezzor on Saturday caused the deaths of 17 militants and a child.
The Observatory also said that at least two regime fighters were killed in Tuesday in infighting, including clashes with al-Nusra Front fighters in the province of Damascus. The Observatory added that twelve opposition fighters were killed in Dakhniya overnight.
Last week, US President Barack Obama announced that he had ordered an expansion of the air campaign in Syria which was launched in August.
So far, there have been no US air strikes in Syria, but Obama’s announcement, to which the Syrian regime did not agree with, drew protests from the Iranian and Russian governments.
