| One of the Russian pilots of the warplane shot down by Turkey was killed on the ground, the other was rescued. | |||||
| Middle East Online | |||||
LATAKIA
- Russian warplanes carried out heavy raids in Syria's northern Latakia
province a day after Turkey downed one of Moscow's jets in the area, a
monitoring group said on Wednesday.
"Russian warplanes
have since last night been carrying out heavy air strikes on the Jabal
Akrad and Jabal Turkman regions" in the north of the province, Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.
He
said Russian planes had carried out at least 12 strikes in the area
since the morning, but had no information on any casualties.
A
media activist on the ground confirmed the heavy strikes, which he said
centred around the Jabal Nuba area where rebels on Tuesday destroyed a
Russian helicopter that was forced to make an emergency landing by
opposition fire.
One member of the crew was killed but the rest were rescued.
State
television reported that Syrian warplanes were also carrying out
strikes in the north of Latakia, a coastal province that is largely
controlled by the regime.
In recent days, regime forces
have been waging fierce battles against rebels in the northern part of
the province, making some advances in Jabal Akrad and Jabal Turkman.
On
Tuesday, Turkey shot down a Russian aircraft over the province, and
rebels killed one of the pilots as he parachuted down after ejecting
from the plane.
A second pilot was rescued by Russian and Syrian special forces.
Russia
began strikes in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on
September 30, over a year after a US-led coalition began strikes in the
country against the Islamic State group.
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