In a recent statement released via its official media channels, the Syrian al-Qaeda affiliate group Ha’yat Tahrir al-Sham
(formerly Jabhat al-Nusra...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli al-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ...
) claimed that it was in possession of the bodies of five Russian service personnel (2 of which are officers) that were killed when rebel fire downed their Mi-8 military transport helicopter whist it was over Idlib province on August 1, 2016.
Furthermore, Ha’yat Tahrir al-Sham also clarified in the statement that the recent transferal of Russian Su-25 pilot Roman Filipov’s deceased remains ‐ killed on Saturday after his warplane was shot down ‐ to the
In other official communiques, Ha’yat Tahrir al-Sham claims that ’revolutionaries’ (a reference to Free Syrian Army
... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund...
fighters) ’stole’ Filipov’s body from its possession.
Whilst sources claim that the Russian pilot’s body was handed to
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
by Free Syrian Army-linked group Faylaq al-Sham, no details exist on how rebel group came into possession of it.