A Syrian trainer plane was shot down by militants operating in the northern Hama province. First reports indicate the pilot was killed in the attack. The plane, an L-39 Albatross, was brought down by heavy anti aircraft fire, according to RT.

The Free Idlib Army claimed responsibility for this attack on social media, but further developments appear to show that elements of the Al-Nusra Front, an Al-Qaeda affiliate, beheaded the pilot of the plane. This took place during fierce fighting between militants and the Syrian government forces.

Al-Nusra has been one of the U.S. supported players in the civil war in Syria. These people were associated with Al-Qaeda as an offshoot until as recently as July 2016. While they now operate independently of Al-Qaeda, their philosophy is essentially just a milder form of that held by ISIS.

A video later emerged, purportedly showing the aircraft pilot’s dead body lying in the back of a truck, with blood around his neck. The footage appears to show a body surrounded by a group of armed men, who are described in the Telegram channel Directorate 4 as members of Jaysh al-Nukhba, a militant group based in Idlib and Hama.

A second pilot may also have been in the aircraft, although his fate is still unknown, Reuters reported.

Unconfirmed footage from the scene shows a man firing a rocket-propelled weapon into the sky as machine guns are heard in the background. A bright flash of an explosion is seen high above, and then smoke rises from a spot of land in the distance.

We will bring you further details as this story unfolds.

Syria looks to upgrade its air force with Russian planes

Feared MiG-29 among the new aircraft used to modernize Syrian forces

This is a continuation of a story, reported earlier on The Duran, and printed above on this post.

[dropcap]O[/dropcap]ne of the worst tragedies of war comes when one side’s weaponry and skill is totally outmatched by the opposing forces. It is possible that the downing today of a trainer aircraft, possibly modified to use as an attack aircraft, led to such a tragedy for the Syrian government forces.

On Tuesday, an L-39 “Albatros”, a small, Czech made aircraft, was shot down by militant forces, possible the Free Idlib Army, operating in the northern Hama province.

The pilot, identified now as Basin Hasan of Homs, survived being shot down, but was killed brutally, possibly by Tahrir al-Sham (formerly al-Nusra, an al-Qaeda affiliated group) forces also operating in that area.

This event is something Syria and its ally Russia are trying to prevent, with the procurement and addition of modernized forces.

In September 2017, the Syrian government forces received twenty Russian-made MiG 29SMT “Fulcrum” multi-role attack aircraft. These are highly advanced and extremely deadly aircraft.

Although these fighters are deployed to Syria, it is unclear at this time if the deployed fighters were purchased by Syria, or if they are simply deployed there to augment that country’s air capabilities. However, 12 more such aircraft are said to be on order at this time.

The Syrian conflict has proven useful as a “testbed” for the effectiveness of Russian military hardware. These planes are no exception. While the L-39 certainly is a valuable platform in the style of medium to low altitude air-to-ground operations the air forces of that country employ, there is no comparison to the power the MiG 29 is able to project.

As the Syrian government forces continue to advance and solidify their gains in the civil war, we can probably expect both further increases in military strength and its deployment.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

S. Hanisch writes and comments on Middle Eastern affairs for The Duran.