Syrian fighter jet crashes: debate over shoot down or technical failure

The Syrian opposition has been calling for a no-fly zone over Syria for months. But Sieda renewed the plea a day after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Washington and Turkey were discussing a range of steps including a no-fly zone over some parts of Syria as the regime increasingly uses its air force to attack rebels.

The eastern, oil-rich region of Deir el-Zour near the border with Iraq has been witnessing heavy clashes between government troops and rebels over the past week. Syrian Prime Minister Riad Hijab, who defected to Jordan earlier this month, comes from Deir el-Zour.

The toll of Syria journalists killed over the weekend rose to three on Monday, when a pro-government TV station said one of its cameramen kidnapped three days ago is believed to be dead.

The station said two other journalists and their driver are being held by rebels near the capital Damascus.

The station said gunmen kidnapped the cameraman Friday along with three other employees of the pro-regime Al-Ikhbariya TV while covering the violence in the Damascus suburb of al-Tal. The three surviving members of the team appeared in an online video, saying they were being held by rebel forces who were treating them well.

A man who identified himself as a rebel spokesman also appeared in the video, saying the cameraman and two members of the Free Syrian Army rebel group were killed in government shelling while on a tour in al-Tal to shoot destruction in the area.

It was impossible to independently verify the events shown in the video. But the general manager of Al-Ikhbariya TV said they believe the cameraman is dead. In June, gunmen raided Al-Ikhbariya's headquarters, killing seven employees.

Two other journalists were killed in Damascus or its suburbs on Saturday. A reporter for state-run news agency SANA was killed in his Damascus home, while another working for the pan-Arab Al-Arabiya TV was killed in a blast in al-Tal.

Activists reported clashes and shelling between government troops and rebels in areas including Damascus and its suburbs, the central province of Homs, and the southern region of Daraa. The Observatory said 52 people were killed so far Monday, 39 of them civilians while the others were soldiers or rebels.

Activists say more than 20,000 people have been killed since the revolt began in March 2011.

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