Jordan says a Syrian air force pilot has flown his Mig-21 fighter jet to the kingdom and asked for political asylum, the Associated Press reports.
"The jetfighter landed at 10:45am and the government is currently considering the pilot's request," Jordanian Minister of State for Information Samih al-Maaytah told The Jordan Times Thursday without elaborating further.
Reuters quotes al-Maaytah as saying the "is being debriefed at the moment."
Reuters says Syrian state television identified the pilot as Col. Hassan Hamada, reporting that he was on a training mission near the border when communications with the plane were lost.
Update at 7:53 a.m. ET: SANA, the Syrian news agency, quotes an "official source" as saying that contact was lost with an MiG-21 aircraft that was on a training flight. SANA quotes the source as saying the fighter, piloted by Col. Hassan Mirei al-Hamadeh, was near the Syrian southern borders before contact with it was lost at around 10: 34 am.
Update at 7:49 a.m. ET: Reuters quotes a Jordanian security source as saying the pilot flew from al-Dumair military airport northeast of Damascus.
Update at 7:39 a.m. ET: A CBS News reports that it was told by a Syrian opposition activist that a military jet was seen flying low over the Syrian city of Daraa, in the direction of Jordan, earlier today.
Daraa, which is only about 20 miles from the Jordanian air base, was one of the cities where the uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad began last March.
Update at 7:37 a.m. ET: The Jordan Times quotes military sources as saying the plane was escorted by Royal Jordanian Airforce jetfighters soon after it entered the Jordanian airspace and was guided to the airbase where it landed safely.
Update at 7:26 a.m. ET: A spokesman for the rebel Free Syrian Army, Ahmad Kassem, says the group had encouraged the pilot to defect, the AP reports.
Since an uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime began in March last year, Syrian troops have refrained from using military warplanes against rebels, the AP says.
Update at 7:21 a.m. ET: Al-Jazeera, quoting a Jordanian security source, reports that the plane landed at King Hussein Air Base, a military installation 50 miles northwest of the Jordanian capital, Amman, near the Syrian border.