Isis claims capture of Syrian pilot in Damascus after fighter jet 'downed in the desert'

Islamic State (Isis) may have captured a Syrian regime pilot after shooting down a Syrian MIG-23 outside Damascus on Friday, 22 April. A video released by the terror group shows a destroyed fighter jet on the outskirts of Damascus.

A news agency linked to IS (Daesh) claims the pilot parachuted to the ground near to the site of the destroyed plane. Other news agencies have reported that IS has captured the pilot, but IBTimes UK could not confirm this.

The propaganda video shows IS fighters filming the wreckage of a warplane "downed in the desert" and climbing onto the aircraft, which displayed the Syrian flag. IS claimed the jet was shot down in a rural area, east of Damascus.

The non-governmental Russian news agency Interfax said the plane crashed due to a technical fault, citing a Syrian military source.

The video of the wreckage was released by the IS-linked news agency Amaq News. No other footage of the crash or the pilot was released.

However, a picture of a Syrian pilot looking downcast in his military uniform was circulating on Twitter on Saturday. Amaq News has claimed the picture is of a Syrian pilot Azzam Eid.

The Syrian government has not yet commented on the video, on the photograph of the pilot, or the claims he was captured.

However, the winged insignia on the alleged pilot's shirt shows the red, white and green colours of the Peshmerga forces – Kurdish militia fighting IS in Syria.

A ceasefire between Bashar al-Assad's regime and IS was agreed in February 2016, when both sides accepted a "cessation to hostilities" in Geneva. In March, it was announced that the main bulk of Russian forces would be withdrawing from Syria.

Since then both sides have engaged in offensives, particularly around the embattled city of Aleppo. Syrian forces retook the city of Palmyra in March 2016 with the aid of Russian airstrikes.