AhlulBayt News Agency - ISIS militants equipped with advanced anti-aircraft weaponry managed to down a Syrian Air Force jet on the perimeter of Dumayr Airbase.
ISIS announced that its terrorists shot down one of the Syrian jets near al-Dumayr Airport in Damascus eastern countryside, ISIS’ A’amak News Agency said on Monday.
Three of Assad jets which were on the tarmac were heavily inflicted by the downed jet in the al-Dumayr Airport.
While nothing is confirmed just yet, preliminary reports suggest that the pilot and co-pilot managed to eject via parachute into a nearby Syrian Arab Army (SAA) controlled area.
While the town of Dumayr is currently contested between Jaish al-Islam rebels and ISIS fighters, the Dumayr airport on the town’s southeastern vicinity remains under government control and fully operational.
Less than a week ago, al-Qaeda rebels (Jabhat al-Nusra) also downed a Syrian jet in the southern countryside of Aleppo. However, during that attack both pilots were captured by the al-Nusra Front.
Recently, ISIS fighters launched several attacks in the eastern of Damascus, thus targeting both Dumayr Airbase, several nearby checkpoints and the Badia cement factory. The latter was seized by ISIS insurgents while the overall offensive was mostly repelled by the SAA.
However, the capture of Badia cement factory caused ISIS to take some 300 Syrian workers as hostage, mostly from non-Sunni minorities. Their fate, along with the pilots downed moments ago, remains unknown for now.
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