At least four crewmembers were taken by rebels after a Syrian military helicopter crashed in northwestern Syria on Sunday, a monitoring group said. A video posted on social media purports to show a helicopter crashing while other images posted appeared to show one of the crewmembers allegedly being executed and an injured pilot taken from the scene. At least four of the six-member crew were kidnapped by the al Nusra Front, a branch of al Qaeda, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The Syrian branch of al Qaeda also posted an image of one of the pilots sitting on a mattress with the group’s banner hanging above. The plane reportedly had a technical problem and was forced to make an emergency landing in the rebel-held area, not downed as the militants had claimed, according to Syrian television.
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