Syrian Turkmen brigades executed Russian pilots, top officer says

The deputy commander of the Syrian Turkmen brigades, a rebel group, said his fighters executed the pilots of the Russian Su-24 warplane that was shot down by Turkish F-16 jets on Tuesday morning. He said the fighters were from the Alwiya al-Ashar, or the 10th Brigade, of the Syrian Turkmen army.
DEBKAfile's intelligence and counterterror sources: The issue of who executed the pilots is very important, as some of the Turkmen brigades are pro-Western ones, like the 10th Brigade that fights alongside the US-backed Free Syrian Army, and others, especially the one based near Raqqa, the de facto ISIS capital in Syria, are linked to the terrorist organization or to the Al-Nusra Front, Al-Qaeda's branch in Syria.