Warplane crashes near Damascus

A warplane in Syria crashed southwest of Damascus on Friday, and it was not clear if it had been brought down by insurgent gunfire or suffered a technical fault, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said, Reuters reports.

The plane crashed southwest of Damascus airport, the British-based monitoring group said, after flying over territory controlled by Islamic State. The fate of the pilot was not known.

Islamic State earlier said a Syrian warplane had been shot down. Its statement could not be independently verified.