Syrian jet downed near Aleppo

A Syrian jet was reportedly shot down on Tuesday by a surface to air missile.

Some Twitter accounts have published the photos of the captured pilot (with an ID still to be confirmed). A video can be seen here.

The Syrian Air Force used Su-22s to attack Israeli forces in the Yom Kippur War and 1982 Lebanon War. More recently, during the Syrian civil war, Syrian Air Force Su-22s have been involved in combat operations against Syrian insurgents.

Like other SyAAF fixed wing aircraft, videos showed Su-22s using unguided munitions, mostly general purpose bombs, cluster bombs and incendiary bombs and unguided rockets. Strike techniques were low to medium altitude flat bombing runs with pull up after ordnance delivery and use decoy flares for self-defence.

Pro-regime media sources said that the pilot of the Sukhoi-22 was captured after his jet was downed in the town of Eis, near Aleppo. No Syrian faction has claimed responsibility for bringing the fighter down. However, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, rebels from Al-Nusra Front were responsible.