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Syrian government aircraft pounded areas of Idlib province Sunday after rebels captured the crew of helicopter that made an emergency landing in the area, amid an uptick in violence in recent days throughout the country. Anti-regime activist groups posted several pieces of video footage showing the descent of the helicopter, which state media said experienced a technical problem, and the aftermath of its crash in the Jabal Zawiyeh area of Idlib, The Daily Star reported.

The video items also included a short exchange between one of the officers on the helicopter and his captors, who accused him of being the same pilot who allegedly dropped explosives containing chlorine gas on Sarmeen, a village in Idlib.

“I didn’t do anything,” the dazed and wounded man says.

Supporters of the Nusra Front, meanwhile, posted a photograph purporting to show the group’s militants with another one of the captured personnel, claiming it was the pilot. An anti-regime media activist group based in Idlib told The Daily Star that the helicopter’s identification code – Bravo 17 – had earlier been picked up by rebels using communications devices, and maintained that it was the same craft that was involved in the bombing of Sarmeen.

An anti-regime media outlet, citing sources in Idlib, also said the helicopter had been identified by its identification code, Bravo 17.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and anti-regime groups in Idlib said that out of half a dozen military personnel believed to have been on the helicopter, four – including the pilot – were captured, one was summarily executed by locals, and a sixth remained on the run. Other outlets maintained that the captured helicopter manifest listed eight passengers, including the crew.