Free Syrian Army rebels say that they had shot down a fighter aircraft belonging to the ‘Alawite’ minority run Government and captured the pilot  in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor.

The rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) say they shot a military aircraft down in the same area. Experts who examined footage from the FSA of the downed plane say its camouflage and markings are consistent with those of a Syrian air force plane. The pilot ejected and a search is now under way to find him, according to state media.

The plane had been on a “routine training mission”, according to state-run news agency Sana. The FSA says that it has captured one of the two-man crew, but has given no evidence of this. The aircraft was shot down near the town of al-Muhassan, around 120km (75miles) from the Iraqi border, according to the rebels.

Syrian rebels have shot down a military fighter jet in eastern Syria near Iraqi border, but the Syrian state media says it crashed due to “technical problems.”

Video footage uploaded online by the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) on Monday shows an aircraft that looks like Syrian air force’s Russian-built MiG-23 fighter jet bursting into flames amidst the sound of gunfire, reports say.

An excited man can be heard saying “A MiG warplane shot down in Mouhassen,” a location in Deir Ezzor, northeast of the Syrian capital Damascus.

The state-run news agency SANA said the plane, which was on a “routine training mission”, crashed due to failure of “control mechanisms.” While it says the pilot ejected and a search is now under way to find him, the rebels say that they detained one of the two-man crew.

Syrian rebels have reportedly received anti-aircraft surface-to-air missile system recently, which experts say is capable of posing a potential threat to the Syrian Air Force.

Meanwhile, opposition watchdog, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said more than 50 people, including 39 civilians, were killed across the country on Monday, as the Bashar al-Assad regime stepped up the offensive to quell rebels in Syria’s largest city of Aleppo.