The Free Syrian Army, funded and trained by the U.S. and Turkey, claimed that it had shot down a Russian helicopter that was searching for two missing pilots on the Turkmen Mountain.
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“Presumably as a result of firing from the ground, an Su-24 plane of the Russian forces crashed in the Syrian Arab Republic”, Russian news agencies quoted the defence ministry as saying. It said the plane was warned 10 times within the space of 5 minutes.
Turkey shot down a Russian warplane at the Syrian border on Tuesday but the United States is still reviewing data to determine precisely where the incident took place, U.S.-led coalition spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said.
Russia’s defense ministry said one of its Su-24 fighter jets had been downed in Syria and that, according to preliminary information, the pilots were able to eject.
Russian defense officials say that the jet was flying at 6,000 feet in Syrian territory when it was struck with ground fire, while Turkish military officials have said that the aircraft was shot down by two F-16s after repeated warnings.
“Russia noticed of the flow of oil from Syrian territory under the control of terrorists to Turkey”.
Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan (R) and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in happier times, November 16, 2015. Islamic State has branded them apostates and carried out mass killings of the group past year.
Warren, speaking via video conference from Baghdad, also said he could not confirm the status of the downed Russian pilots. “I can not qualify what happened today as anything else”, said a visibly furious Putin. In early October, Turkey’s leaders raised concerns over Russian jets that apparently violated Turkey’s airspace twice.
The incident will have grave consequences for Russia’s relations with Turkey, Putin warned.
The official would not comment on whether the alliance was in contact with Russian authorities over the incident.
A Russian jet has been shot down by Turkish warplanes this morning, near the border with Syria.
“We have always treated Turkey, not just as a close neighbor, but as a friendly state”, said Putin.
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“The incident highlights heightened friction in Syria’s increasingly crowded airspace, which now includes Russian warplanes that are targeting the armed opposition of President Bashar al-Assad’s embattled forces”. Ankara, a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member, largely paid them little heed publicly except in the last few weeks as they have come under intense Russian bombardment.
