Two Turkish F-16s forced the plane back into Syrian airspace and Russian Federation responded by saying the plane had entered Turkey “by mistake” and assured Ankara it would not happen again.
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USA and Russian aircraft have come into visual contact in the skies over Syria on several occasions.
In a statement, Turkey’s military said the plane ignored three warnings before Turkish warplanes shot down the aircraft Friday.
Asserting that the only way to end the civil war in Syria was through a legitimate, inclusive government there, US President Barack Obama has said that he hopes Russian Federation would soon realise it can’t “buy peace” in the war-torn country through air strikes.
Turkish Foreign Minister Feridun Sinirlioglu said the drone crossed the border and flew almost two miles into Turkey before it was shot down.
The Russian defence mi-nistry said later on Friday that it had established direct contact with the Turkish military to avoid incidents with flights near the border, Interfax news agency reported.
Earlier this month Turkey accused Russian jets – which have lately joined the air battle against rebel group that was Syrian -.
Mr Putin reaffirmed that the Russian bombing blitz against the Islamic State group and other radicals in Syria will continue “for the period of the Syrian troops’ offensive operations against terrorists”, but would not elaborate.
Seeking to soothe Turkey’s anger over the violations of its airspace by Russian aircraft earlier this month, Moscow sent a high-level military delegation to discuss preventing such incidents.
It was the first time Iranian fighters had taken part on such a scale in the Syrian conflict, he said, although their numbers were modest compared to the army force.
Turkish air force planes yesterday downed a drone of unknown origin which had violated Turkey’s air space near the Syrian border, the military said.
Just last week, U.S. Ambassador to North Atlantic Treaty Organisation Douglas Lute warned of such an expeditionary force, saying Moscow had sent a “battalion-size ground force”, about 800 to 1,000 troops, to Syria along with advanced tanks, artillery and long range rockets.
The attack appears aimed at securing President Bashar Assad’s seat of power that has been shelled recently from rebel-held areas. Rebels had hit one army tank with US-made TOW anti-tank missile. “In the strikes, 456 targets have been destroyed”, he said.
But it is clear that after years with little in the way of drone technology, Moscow has ramped up its emphasis on unmanned aerial vehicles in recent years, said Douglas Barrie, senior fellow for Military Aerospace at the global Institute for Strategic Studies.
These air defenses, Kartapolov said, will not be used against the U.S.-led anti-IS coalition.
“The Pentagon may say whatever it wants”, he told the daily Komsomolskaya Pravda.
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On Friday, Obama predicted any military intervention by Russian Federation or Iran in Syria would fail. “All our missiles reached their targets”.
