BEIRUT — Syrian activists said rebels shot down a government warplane over the northern province of Idlib on Thursday, the second time in a week that opposition fighters claimed to have brought down an aircraft in the escalating civil war.
Two activist groups, The Local Coordination Committees
and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the
plane was seen crashing near the Abu Zuhour air base. Idlib-based
activist Alaa al-Din said rebels shot it down with heavy machine guns.
A
video broadcast on the pan-Arab satellite station Al-Arabiya shows what
appears to be a person parachuting and rebels cheering and claiming he
was the pilot. The video’s authenticity could not be verified.
The
government had no immediate comment, and the report couldn’t be
independently confirmed. But a brief video clip posted by an Idlib-based
rebel group showed the body of a man in an olive-green pilot overall
with an apparent head wound. A short distance away lay what appeared to
be a white parachute.
The authenticity of the video, dated Aug. 30, could not be independently verified.
Over
the past month, President Bashar Assad’s regime has been relying much
more heavily on air power, escalating the fight with rebels as its
ground forces have been stretched thin fighting on many fronts including
Syria’s two largest cities — Damascus and Aleppo. The military has
conducted air raids on the northern regions of Idlib and Aleppo near
Turkey as well as the eastern province of Deir el-Zour.
The
increased use of air power is likely a factor in the high daily death
tolls, which activists say have been averaging 100-250 lately.
This was the third time this month the rebels claimed to have brought down a government aircraft.
Earlier
this week, the opposition fighters said they shot down a helicopter in
the Damascus neighborhood of Jobar while the government confirmed a
chopper crashed in nearby area of al-Qaboun. On Aug. 13, rebels claimed
to have shot down a regime MiG-23 warplane and captured the pilot in
Deir el-Zour. Syria says the pilot ejected after a technical malfunction
in the fighter jet.
If the rebel claims are confirmed, it would
be another blow to Assad’s regime, which has been struggling to put down
rebel challenges around the country even though its firepower is far
superior to the opposition’s.
Rebels appear to be targeting air bases with increasing frequency.
Earlier
in the day, the Observatory reported explosions inside the Abu Zuhour
air base in Idlib, near where the plane was reported to have been shot
down. It added that rebels have captured parts of the compound.
On
Wednesday, state news agency SANA reported that government forces
repulsed a major rebel attack on a helicopter military base of Taftanaz,
also in Idlib province.
Idlib, which borders Turkey, has been one
of the major rebel strongholds since last year. Although government
troops control the provincial capital, which carries the same name as
the province, rebels move freely in towns and villages in the district.
In
Iran, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi described the Syrian regime as
“oppressive” and called for it to transfer power to a democratic system.
He was speaking at the opening of a summit of the 120-member Nonaligned
Movement in Tehran.
Morsi’s comments angered the Syrian delegation, which walked out in protest, according to Syria’s state-run media.
Syrian
Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem, who is also in Tehran, was quoted by
the state-owned Al-Ikhbariya TV as saying: “Morsi’s comments violated
the traditions of the summit and are considered interference in Syrian
internal affairs.” He also accused Morsi of “instigating blood shedding
in Syria.”
Iran is Syria’s closest ally in the Middle East.
Morsi
is an Islamist from the Muslim Brotherhood, the most powerful political
force to emerge from last year’s uprising that ousted longtime
authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak. The Sunni fundamentalist group
opposes Shiite Iran’s staunch backing of the Syrian regime and its
lethal crackdown on the largely Sunni opposition. Assad belongs to the
minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
Assad,
speaking in a rare TV interview broadcast on Wednesday, said his armed
forces will need time to defeat the rebels — an acknowledgement of the
difficulties the military is facing in winning the civil war.
A
member of Syria’s main opposition group said his comments aimed to
explain his security forces’ failure in putting down the rebellion.
British-based opposition activist Ausama Monajed, who is a member of the
Syrian National Council, said in a telephone interview that Assad’s
statements tried to “justify the failure of the security solution.”
“He
is trying to boost the morale of his supporters. He is trying to
justify the failure of the military solution that has been going on for
months,” Monajed said. “His comments were addressed to his
constituency.”
Activists estimate more than 20,000 people have been killed since the uprising against Assad’s began more than 17 months ago.
