Off the wire
• Spain's tourist sector expects best summer in history  • Zambia main opposition party demands release of voters' register  • South China Sea issue has to be solved by creative dialogue: Thai expert  • EU publishes proposals to simplify technical regulations for TTIP  • Armed gunmen attack Ugandan troops on evacuation mission in South Sudan  • Zambia seizes 20,000 bags of maize  • Critical mass pivotal to resume Syria peace talks: UN envoy  • 1st LD: Lao PM voices support for China's stance on South China Sea arbitration  • Premier Li encourages young people to learn skills  • Messaging app maker Line debuts on NYSE  
You are here: 　 Home

IS downs Syrian warplane, crucifies pilot in Deir al-Zour

Xinhua, July 15, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Islamic State (IS) group downed a Syrian war jet in the country's eastern province of Deir al-Zour on Thursday, capturing and crucifying the pilot, a monitor group reported.

The terror group shot down the aircraft near the airbase of Deir al-Zour, which the group has for long been trying to capture from the Syrian government forces, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

After downing the plane, the IS militants hang the pilot on a cross, and crucified him, the UK-based watchdog group added.

It said the IS group has downed several warplanes in different parts of the country since April 2016.

The group has earned a reputation in befalling brutal punishment on the captured soldiers and those who don't abide by its ultra radical teachings.

The IS controls much of the countryside of the oil-rich province of Deir al-Zour, except the city, which is still under the government control, but besieged by IS.

Russian aircrafts frequently carry out airdrops of aid and food to the besieged people in that city.

Deir al-Zour holds a strategic importance to the IS, due to its proximity to the IS-controlled areas in neighboring Iraq. Endit