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Global

Islamic State downs Syrian war plane - monitor


    BEIRUT (Reuters) - Islamic State fighters shot down a Syrian war plane near the group's stronghold of Raqqa using anti-aircraft guns, an organisation that tracks violence in the Syrian civil war said.

    Rami Abdelrahman, who runs the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said it was the first time the group has downed a war plane since declaring its cross-border caliphate in Iraq and Syria after capturing the Iraqi city of Mosul in June.

    Speaking by telephone, he said he was citing sources in Raqqa close to the Islamic State.

    A resident had earlier reported that a war plane had crashed outside the city of Raqqa, 400 km (250 miles) northeast of Damascus. But it was not immediately clear what had caused it to crash.

    (Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Hugh Lawson)