An official based in Syria and allied with government forces says Daesh (ISIS) militants have seized the body of a Syrian pilot whose fighter jet was shot down by Israel Tuesday.
The official told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the fate of the second Syrian pilot remains unknown. He did not elaborate.
Colonel Omran Merei, fellow Assad’s Alawite sect was born in coastal Tartus province. He departed from the Syrian T4 air base, which Israel is believed to have attacked earlier this year, AP reported.
The official is with the so-called "Axis of Resistance," which is led by Iran and which includes Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and other groups fighting alongside Bashar Assad's forces. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters.
Israel said it shot down the jet after it flew into Israeli territory. The incident comes as Syrian government forces retaking territory from rebels reached the frontier with the occupied Golan Heights for the first time in seven years.
A sliver of land along the frontier, on the Syrian side, is still in the hands of Daesh.
Military spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus says Tuesday that the plane flew toward Israel at "relatively high speed" before breaching the country's airspace. He said it was unknown if the plane deliberately crossed into Israel nor what happened to its pilot. The plane crashed in the southern part of the Syrian Golan Heights, he said.
He said the increased activity near Israel's frontier with Syria put the military on "elevated alert" and prompted Israel to issue a number of warnings through different channels to ensure a 1974 agreement which sets out a demilitarized zone along the shared Syria-Israel frontier would not be violated
Regime-run media said hours before that the regime forces had reached the frontier with Golan Heights after capturing territory from rebels and Islamic State militants.
Al-Ikhbariya TV on Tuesday broadcast footage from the fence demarcating the U.N. buffer zone between Syrian and Israeli forces inside the Golan Heights.
The camera showed an Israeli observation post 400 meters (440 yards) away.
It is the first time regime forces have taken up positions along the frontier since an uprising against Bashar Assad swept through the country in 2011. Islamic State militants later seized territory from rebels along the frontier region.
Comments About This Article
Please fill the fields below.