Washington Post:
ISTANBUL — Syria’s former al-Qaeda affiliate claimed responsibility Saturday for the downing of a Russian warplane in northern Syria, apparently using a surface-to-air missile to target the aircraft.
The pilot was killed after he ejected and exchanged gunfire with militants on the ground, the Russian Defense Ministry and a monitoring group said.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, a powerful rebel alliance that publicly split from al-Qaeda last year, said it had used a shoulder-fired weapon to down the Su-25 fighter jet as it flew low over the opposition-held town of Saraqeb.
That claim was echoed by Russia’s Interfax news agency, quoting the Defense Ministry, as well as the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The incident could raise tensions between Russia and Turkey, which is monitoring a “de-escalation zone” in the northern province of Idlib as part of an agreement made during Syrian peace talks in the Kazakh capital, Astana…
