Israel maintained its longtime policy of ambiguity following Tuesday's downing of a Syrian Sukhoi fighter jet over the Golan Heights, while Syrian media largely downplayed the incident.
However, some outlets in Syria suggested that Israel's air force shot down the Syrian aircraft in an effort to help rebel forces fighting against the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
An official Syrian government source confirmed to state-run news agencies that a Syrian fighter jet was hit but didn't offer further details.
"The Zionist enemy attacked and hit our plane in the Yarmouk Valley area south of Damascus," the source said.
Shortly after the incident, a Syrian military official told official news outlets in the country that the "Israeli enemy showed again that it has adopted the terrorist organizations and attacked one of our fighter planes, which are pummeling the terrorist concentrations in the Saida area on the outskirts of the Yarmouk Valley within Syrian airspace."
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based watchdog group, said the pilot, a colonel, was killed when the plane was downed, and that his navigator was listed as missing in action.
Islamic State fighters in the Quneitra region on the Syrian Golan Heights, who have refused to surrender to Assad and his allies, posted footage to social media purporting to show the burnt body of the downed Syrian pilot.
