The pilot was reportedly captured on Tuesday in an area outside of Aleppo after his warplane was shot down by al-Nusra Front, a Syria-based group with strong ties to al Qaeda.

Syria's military confirmed that a plane had been shot down by a surface-to-air missile. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, said the pilot had been taken back to the group's headquarters in the area.

Earlier this week, al-Nusra fighters pushed Syrian government troops out of the area of Talat al-Iss, the same area where the pilot's plane was downed. Since then, the group has come under heavy bombardment from both government and Russian forces.

Video footage showed a plume of smoke rising from the wreckage and a group of rebels surrounding the plane.

Al-Nusra, like other terror groups with a presence in Syria, is not part of the US- and Russia-led ceasefire agreed upon by the Syrian government and Western-backed rebel forces on February 27.

blc/jil (AFP, Reuters)