Turkey says it has shot down a Russian warplane on the Syrian border for violating Turkish airspace.
Two Turkish officials told the plane was shot down on Tuesday by the Turkish military. Syrian rebel forces have told that bodies of both pilots have been recovered. It is also reported that Russian helicopters were searching for the pilots close to the Turkish-Syrian border.
The Turkish president’s office identified the warplane as Russian-made. The Russian defense ministry acknowledged that a Su-24 fighter jet crashed in Syria as a result of shot fire.
The ministry was quoted by TASS Russian News Agency as saying: “A probe is in progress into the circumstances of the Russian plane crash.”
From a first chronicle achievable by several video and picture available on the net, it results that first of all the Russian airplane Sukhoi Su-24 fighter jet was shot down by Turkish air F-16 Fighting Falcon. Consequently, the two Russian pilots ejected themselves with parachute to escape the burning warplane.
Unfortunately, they were shot with machine guns by Syrian rebels from the ground and one of them was killed. A russian helicopter sent to rescue the body of the pilots was also hit with an anti-tank missile, performed an emergency landing, and one of the marines on board was died.
Vladimir Putin has called Turkey “accomplices of terrorists” and warned of “serious consequences” after a Turkish F-16 jet shot down a Russian warplane on Tuesday morning, the first time a Nato country and Moscow have exchanged direct fire over the crisis in Syria.
The Russian president, speaking before a meeting with King Abdullah II of Jordan in Sochi, said the plane had been shot down over Syrian airspace and fell 4km inside Syria. Putin said it was “obvious” the plane posed no threat to Turkey.
“Our military is doing heroic work against terrorism … But the loss of today is a stab in the back, carried out by the accomplices of terrorists. I can’t describe it in any other way,” he said. Putin suggested the Turks were shielding Islamic State terrorists from Russian attacks, saying: “Do they want to make NATO serve Isis?”
In Washington, Barack Obama said that Turkey had a right to defend its territory and airspace.