A picture taken on February 3, 2018, shows smoke billowing from the site of a downed Sukhoi-25 fighter jet in Syria's northwest province of Idlib. Rebel fighters shot down a Russian plane over Syria's northwest Idlib province and captured its pilot. (AFP Photo)
ANKARA, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- Turkey was involved in efforts to deliver the body of a Russian pilot to Moscow who was killed in a mission in Syria on Saturday, a Turkish official told Xinhua on Wednesday.
A Russian transport plane landed in southern Hatay Province of Turkey late Monday to transfer the body of the Russian pilot, the official said on condition of anonymity.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Tuesday that they had asked for help from Turkey after a Su-25 fighter jet was shot down when it overflew a de-escalation zone in the province of Idlib in northwestern Syria, and the pilot blew himself up with a grenade after being seriously wounded and surrounded by the militants.
The downing of the aircraft was claimed by Tahrir al-Sham, a group spearheaded by the former al-Nusra Front.
"The pilot, Maj. Roman Filipov, who died heroically in Syria on Feb. 3, has been brought back to Russia by the Russian military intelligence service in collaboration with our Turkish colleagues," the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Tuesday that it sent a request to the Turkish side to assist in obtaining all the debris of the downed fighter jet.
The ministry said its experts were "particularly interested in the remains of the Russian aircraft's engines with traces of the missile impact in order to precisely identify the MANPADS (man-portable air defense systems) type used by terrorists, production site and channels of supply to Syria."
Turkey, Russia and Iran are working together to promote de-escalation zones in Syria. Idlib is one of those de-escalation zones, where the Turkish army has established three observation positions and is working on the fourth.
