BEIRUT: Syrian rebels on Thursday shot down two military warplanes over the northwestern province of Idlib, said a monitoring group.

Both jets were hit with fire from heavy machineguns while the air force was carrying out a series of raids in the area, much of which is under the control of the rebels, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The warplanes were shot down in separate strikes, several hours apart, near the rebel-held town of Maaret al-Numan.

An Islamist rebel group, Ahfad al-Rasul (Grandchildren of the Prophet), claimed in an amateur video posted online to have brought down one of them, a Russian Sukhoi fighter jet, using anti-aircraft weaponry.