...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
, Syria's Al-Watan newspaper reported on Thursday.
"Eleven members of an elite unit of the air force intelligence service and a (Russian-language) translator, led by an officer, infiltrated 3.5 kilometers (two miles) behind enemy lines in the Al-Atira region on Tuesday and recovered the airman," the pro-government newspaper said.
Al-Atira is an area of Latakia province, around 12 kilometers (eight miles) from the border with Turkey.
Syrian forces launched the operation after Turkey downed the Russian jet on Tuesday morning, forcing the two-man crew to eject over rebel-held territory. According to Al-Watan, the team set out in late morning from the Hmeimim airbase in Latakia, where Russian forces are concentrated.
The plane's pilot had already been killed by rebel fire as he parachuted down but a Russian drone spotted navigator Konstantin Murakhtin in hiding on the ground. The "Russian drone communicated to Syrian special forces the navigator's location, as well as where the terrorist groups were," Al-Watan said, referring to the rebels.
"He was spotted thanks to his GPS. It was a race against time because the hard boyz were also looking for him."
The paper said the rescue team clashed with rebels during the 12-hour operation, but were able to recover Murakhtin, who was injured in the leg.
Speaking to Russian state media on Wednesday, the navigator gave no details of his rescue, which the Russian military said involved its own special forces working alongside Syrian troops.
Russia has not released the name of the slain pilot, although President Vladimir Putin
...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...has said he will posthumously be given Russia's highest award for valor, the Hero of Russia medal.
His body is believed to still be in the hands of rebel forces in Latakia province.
Murakhtin is also to be decorated along with soldiers involved in the rescue operation, including one Moscow has said was killed when his Mi-8 helicopter was forced to make an emergency landing after being hit by gunfire.
| The Times of Israel adds: |
Soleimani was reported lightly injured earlier this week near Aleppo.
After the pilot was downed by
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
on Tuesday, "credible information was obtained that a number of special Turkish units had been sent to the scene to take the Russian pilot captive to blackmail Russia later," the semi-official Fars News Agency reports, based on a report in the Persian-language version of the Russian Sputnik news agency that quotes an unnamed Syrian officer.
| Unwise if true, interesting if false. I wonder which it is? |
The alleged operation to rescue the Russian pilot was carried out by eight Hezbollah fighters and 18 Syrian commandos and covered by Russian satellites and air force. The team "saved the pilot after infiltrating 6 kilometers behind the enemy lines, killing the holy warriors operating in there and destroying their hi-tech equipment," it says.