The Russian Defense Ministry and RIA Novosti confirmed the incident which happened over Syria’s Idlib province.
“Over the area controlled by the terrorist group Jebhat an Nusra in the province of Idlib, the launch of a MANPADS missile against a Russian Su-25 was carried out. In response to this incident, a strike accomplished with precision weapons against a group of more than 30 rebels affiliated with the group Djebhat Al-Nusra.
“On Saturday evening, militants with the help of MANPADS shot down the Russian Air Force attack aircraft. The pilot of the plane managed to eject, but died in battle with terrorists.”
Russian efforts to return the body of the Russian pilot, is ongoing.
The Russian Ministry of Defense released the name of the Russian pilot, Roman Fillipov who was from Crimea and served in the Ukrainian Air Force before swearing his allegiance to Russia after the unification of Crimea with Russia in 2014.
Fillipov parachuted safely to land and near his aircraft, but he refused to surrender to terrorist forces and engaged in a gun battle before he was killed.
The deputy chairman of the State Duma Defense Committee Yury Shvytkin, the incident has called unconditionally for an investigation. He explained that until today there was no case when the terrorists had used MANPADS.
Shvytkin suggested that the anti-aircraft missile system terrorists used, they had received from representatives of the West.
Kurdish forces expressed condolences saying the death of the pilot occured “at the hands of the same terrorists” guilty of the death of Kurdish soldiers. “We lit candles in memory of the Russian pilot, just as we light candles in memory of the dead Kurds,” a Kurdish commander was quoted as saying by RussiaFeed.
The Al-Nusra Front is known to be operating in this region, under the alias of the Free Syrian Army. The technologically advanced use of MANPADS raises questions about American weapons being made available to Al-Nusra.
In swift response, a precision strike by the Russians is believed to have killed some 30 terrorists, those responsible for the downing of the Su-25 and the killing of its pilot. According to a military source , the Russian Air Force was given exact coordinates of the jihadist convoy from the intelligence wing of the Syrian Tiger Forces.
The Russian Air Force destroyed the jihadist convoy near the strategic town of Saraqib, located along a key highway. The source said that at least two tanks, three pick-up trucks, and one motorcycle was destroyed during the airstrikes.
The downing of the fighter may lead to an escalation of the confrontation between US-supported forces and Russian forces in the region.
For the sake of expedience, the United States has tried to make use of enemy forces as allies, inflaming the conflict against Syria’s legitimate government under Bashir al-Assad, and implicating the Kurds, Turkish forces, and ISIS.
