In a third downing in three days, a Turkish fighter jet downed a Syrian regime warplane over the north-western Idlib province Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said.
Turkey on Sunday confirmed it had launched a military operation against Syrian forces in the border region, where Ankara supports some rebel groups.
Syrian state news agency SANA said one of its planes was “targeted” after two others were shot down on Sunday.
Turkey confirmed the downing of an L-39 jet.
The Observatory said the Syrian plane was brought down by a Turkish F-16 and crashed to the ground. The fate of the crew was not immediately clear, the Britain-based Observatory said.
Syrian forces have since December been battling to retake the last major opposition bastion of Idlib from rebels and jihadists linked to Syria’s former Al-Qaeda affiliate.
The Turkish operation came after an air strike on Thursday blamed on Damascus killed 34 Turkish soldiers in the region.
The Observatory says 93 Syrian soldiers have been killed in Turkish bombardment since Friday along with 10 fighters of the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah and four pro-Iranian fighters.
On Sunday, Damascus claimed to have brought down three Turkish drones over the region.
