Syrian Army Mig-23 jet
© Sputnik/ Mikhail Voskresenskiy
The Syrian army lost contact with a jet performing a reconnaissance mission near the Turkish border, local media said Saturday.

Earlier in the day, fighters from Syria's Ahrar al Sham Islamist extremist group claimed to have shot down a Syrian government MiG-21 fighter jet over the Syrian province of Idlib. Syrian government sources later reportedly confirmed that contact had been lost with a low-flying plane over Idlib, but said this was due to technical difficulties.

Contact with the jet was lost and the military is now searching for the pilot, who had ejected, the SANA news agency reported, citing a military source.


Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim has confirmed that a Syrian military plane had crashed in south Turkey's Hatay province.

Media reports said, citing Turkish sources, that the jet was a MiG-23 fighter rather than a MiG-21.

Debris of a crashed Syrian fighter jet were found near the Turkish border with Syria, according to the Hatay province governor.

The pilot apparently had ejected, the governor added.

According to the Daily Sabah newspaper, the found pilot has been injured. He was first taken to the gendarmerie and then hospitalized, the NTV television channel reported.

Turkey will announce in the coming days whether it will hand over a captured Syrian pilot who landed on the Turkish side of the border after ejecting from a crashing military plane to Syria, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Nurettin Canikli said Sunday.

"The pilot's treatment is continuing right now. A decision would be made after the whole event is clarified, but now it is very fresh," Canikli told reporters, according to the state Anadolu news agency, adding the decision would be made soon.

According to the Turkish newspaper, the pilot said that the jet took off from the military airbase in Syria's Latakia to carry out airstrikes on militants' targets near the Syrian city of Idlib close to the Turkish border, but was shot down during the operation.

The newspaper did not specify who attacked the Syrian jet.

The news comes amid the nationwide ceasefire in Syria between Damascus and Syrian rebels that came into force on December 30, and has been holding up in general, despite continued reports of violations. The UN Security Council passed a resolution in December supporting the effort.