Militants claim to have shot down Syrian army plane in northwest

Militants belonging to the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front terrorist group claim they have shot down a Syrian army cargo plane in the country’s troubled northwest.

The group announced that the plane went down near the Abu al-Duhur military airfield in Idlib Province on Saturday night.

The militant sources say the cargo plane was transporting food and ammunition.

The news comes as the government in Damascus has made no comments on the issue. There has also been no word from state media.

This is not the first time militants claim to have shot down Syrian military aircraft. Similar claims have been made over the past nearly four years of crisis in Syria.

The foreign-backed militants have suffered major losses during mop-up operations conducted by the Syrian army in some areas across the country over the past few months.