Military plane crashes near Damascus

A small aircraft apparently used by the Syrian military crashed today near Damascus killing at least two people, witnesses said.

The plane came down in Muadamiet al-Sham district, 7 km west of Damascus, they said.

"The plane looked like a training aircraft. Two bodies were pulled from the wreckage," Mohammad Nasser, one of the witnesses, said. "It came down among gardens and did not hit houses."

Another witness saw a truck carrying the wreckage to the Mezzeh military airport. He said he saw no military markings on the plane.

The crash came at a time of heightened tension between Syria and Israel, which carried out an air strike deep inside Syrian territory on September 6th. Both sides have given little information about the target.