Islamic State Claims Capture of Syrian Pilot

The Islamic State terrorist group has captured the pilot of a Syrian warplane that crashed southeast of Damascus on Friday, a news agency affiliated with the militant group said.
"The pilot, called Azzam Eid, from Hama, was captured after he fell by parachute near the site where his plane crashed east of Damascus," the Aamaq agency said.
The agency posted a video online that purported to show the wreckage of the MiG-23 plane, which it said had been shot down by anti-aircraft weapons.
The footage showed Islamic State fighters around burning plane wreckage, part of which had a Syrian flag painted on it.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group confirmed that a Syrian plane had crashed in the Damascus countryside after flying over territory controlled by Islamic State.  But it could not say whether the aircraft had been shot down or what had happened to the pilot.
There was no comment from the Syrian government on the downing of the plane or the claim by Islamic State of the capture of the pilot.

A Turkish news agency says rockets fired from Syria have hit southern Turkey, killing two people and wounding four others.

The state-run Anadolu Agency reveals that  two rockets struck Kilis, a town just a few kilometers from the Syrian border, late Friday.

A round of rockets also shook the town in the morning but caused no casualties.

The Syrian conflict periodically spills over into Turkey with stray rockets landing in border towns, sometimes causing fatalities.

The Turkish military normally responds by firing back at targets in Syria, in line with its rules of engagement.

The wider province of Kilis borders areas in Syria that are hotly contested by Syrian anti-government rebels, Kurdish factions, and Islamic State militants.

The U.N. envoy for Syria divulged  that the current round of Geneva peace talks will continue until "probably Wednesday, as originally planned," but that the two sides are "extremely polarized" and a cease-fire is in trouble.

Staffan de Mistura says the hobbled peace process needs support from a group of countries known as the International Syria Support Group led by the U.S. and Russia, and calls on that body to reconvene at ministerial level.

The opposition High Negotiations Committee pulled out of formal, though not "technical" talks, earlier this week, as it accused President Bashar Assad's government of violating the cease-fire and hampering the flow of aid to besieged areas.

Speaking to reporters Friday, de Mistura took issue with the government's recent claim that it was not besieging any towns or villages. He says the international community counts 18 priority besieged areas in Syria: 15 by the government, two by the armed opposition, and one by the Islamic State group.