DAMASCUS, July 11 (Xinhua) -- Rebels in Syria on Tuesday said they shot down a Syrian government warplane near a ceasefire zone in southern Syria, but Syrian military denied the claim.
The Jaidh Usud al-Sharqiyeh, or the Army of Eastern Lions, which are active in the Syrian Desert, and the Ahmad al Abdo Forces, claimed in a joint statement that they downed the aircraft, which crashed in a government-controlled area.
The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a rebel monitor group, also reported that the rebels targeted the warplane over a desert area between the southern province of Sweida and the Syrian capital Damascus.
There has been no official response from the Syrian government so far about the rebels' claims.
But a Syrian military officer on Tuesday denied the opposition reports of rebels' downing a Syrian warplane in the southern region.
In a phone call with Xinhua, the Sweida-based officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said no warplane was shot down Tuesday by rebels in Sweida countryside in southern Syria.
The alleged crash site is near a ceasefire zone in southern Syria agreed upon recently between Russia and the United States.
The ceasefire deal, which went into effect on Sunday, was reached at a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit in Germany.
Under the deal, Russia agrees to ensure the Syrian government and Hezbollah militias adhere to the ceasefire while the U.S. and Jordan promise to ensure Syrian rebels do the same.
The situation has been relatively quiet in the past two days in most of the covered provinces, including Daraa, Quneitra and Sweida, though there have been reports of sporadic fightings.
Meanwhile, the seventh round of Syrian peace talks, attended by Syrian government and opposition officials, started in Geneva on Monday in an attempt to broker an end to the 6-year-long civil war in Syria. But the expectation for a breakthrough is low as the two sides are still far apart over a number of issues.
