The Russian news agency TASS quoted Russia's defence ministry as saying a Russian Su-25 warplane was brought down in Syria's Idlib province on Saturday, and the pilot was killed during "a fight" after ejecting by parachute. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Russian pilot was dead but had no further details. The violence in Idlib came as fighting raged between Turkish troops and Turkey-backed opposition gunmen with Syrian Kurdish fighters in the northern Syrian enclave of Afrin. The Turkish military said seven of its soldiers were killed in Syria and another was killed on the Turkish side of the border in an attack by Syrian Kurdish militiamen. The spokesperson, Ibrahim Kalin, said on Saturday that Turkey's first demand is to see the Syrian Kurdish militia — the YPG — move east of the Euphrates River and leave the town of Manbij, where American troops backing the Syrian Kurdish fighters are stationed.

Source: CBC News February 03, 2018 17:58 UTC