WORLD_ Syrian rebels 'shoot down' fighter jet

Syrian rebels 'shoot down' fighter jet

Free Syrian Army fighters claim to have shot government MiG-23 jet over Deir Ezzor and captured the pilot

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Email Mona Mahmood, Luke Harding, and agencies in Aleppo
guardian.co.uk, Monday 13 August 2012 19.45 BST

Syrian rebels claim to have shot down a government warplane in the east of the country, in a significant propaganda boost after devastating aerial attacks.

Free Syrian Army fighters in Deir Ezzor said they had downed the MiG-23 fighter jet early on Monday morning as it flew low on a bombing mission over the town's Mohassan district. Video shows part of a jet bursting into flames, followed by ecstatic rebel cries of "God is great".

Syria's state news agency, Sana, said the jet had suffered a technical failure on a training mission and the pilot had ejected. The rebels said they had shot the MiG down using a heavy machine gun and captured the pilot, Colonel Mufeed Muhammed Salman, who appears in the video.

Ziyad al-Ameer, a local activist and resident, said warplanes had been flying over the Mohassan district and neighbouring villages for several days. Two days ago a plane had bombed nearby Abu Lail, hitting a house and killing two brothers sleeping inside, he said.

"MiGs are flying here every day and shooting at random, in addition to artillery shelling. As soon as the warplanes are done, the shelling starts again. The Syrian army was using helicopters before, but now they are using MiGs," Ameer said via Skype.

He said he had hidden in the bushes when two MiGs flew over his neighbourhood early on Monday morning. One of them fired on a mosque and a deserted house.

The planes had been in the air for about an hour and a half when the Othman ben Affan battalion, part of the Ahfad Muhammad brigade, shot one of them down, Ameer said. "The man who shot down the warplane is Muhamed Allawi. When I told him 'congratulations', he replied: 'Congratulations to all of us.'"

The FSA said the pilot had tried to return to the nearby military airport, but rebels from Bu Omer had captured him. Four more warplanes had strafed the village, killing one fighter and wounding another.

In the video the pilot appears composed, flanked by three FSA gunmen. He claims that bruises on his chin were caused by parachute ropes.

Ameer said prisoners would be treated in accordance with the Geneva convention. "None of the FSA men touched him or said any bad words to him. He refused to have any food or drink and the doctor advised us to leave him to rest."

Lieutenant Abu al-Abbas al-Sabawi, a commander in the Othman Ben Affan battalion, said his unit had downed the MiG using a machine gun. Despite claims that outside parties such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia are supporting the rebels, there is little evidence that heavy weapons or surface-to-air missiles have reached them.

Sabawi said he had defected from Brigade 15 in Homs and joined the FSA a few months ago. "The warplanes have been shooting Muhassan district for three days," he said. "We prepared an ambush for these planes by using anti-aircraft guns loaded on cars, but they changed their movements. They used to target places where they suspected FSA men were gathering, but they stopped doing that.

"Today we prepared another ambush among trees and bushes and we used all sorts of camouflage. As the plane was flying low we were able to shoot it down. A flame of fire came out of the plane – it seems the engine was hit. The pilot lost control and the plane started to go left and right. We guessed that the pilot was going to throw himself out of the plane so we chased him in our car until we captured him. There were explosions in plane because it was full of ammunition, but we got the pilot."

Fighting continued elsewhere, with fierce battles in Aleppo and clashes and shelling in Damascus. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist group, said troops had carried out a large-scale raid in the capital, arresting at least 21 people. Activists reported fighting in Salahaddine, Aleppo's most contested neighbourhood, which the government said it retook from the rebels last week.

Diplomatic efforts have been paralysed for weeks, after 17 months of revolt. General Babacar Gaye, head of the UN supervision mission, said: "It is clear that violence is increasing in many parts of Syria. The indiscriminate use of heavy weapons by the government and targeted attacks by the opposition in urban centres are inflicting a heavy toll on innocent civilians."

He condemned Bashar al-Assad's regime for using heavy weaponsand urged it to shift from its military mindset to "a mindset of dialogue".




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