Rebels says they shoot down Syrian military jet in south

AMMAN - Western-backed Syrian rebels said they had shot down a Syrian military jet on Tuesday in a desert area in southern Syria near the border with Jordan, where the army had recently advanced and seized border posts.

Saad al Haj, spokesman for the Osoud al Sharqiya rebel group leader, told Reuters the rebels had shot down the Russian-built MiG using anti-aircraft guns.

"It was downed in Wadi Mahmoud in eastern Sweida countryside. The wreckage fell in the area and we think the pilot has dropped in a parachute. The search is going on to find him," said al Haj, whose group is one of two major rebel groups that operates in the area.