BEIRUT // Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet near its border with Syria on Tuesday, saying that the plane violated Ankara’s airspace and ignored repeated warnings.
Russia’s defence ministry disputed the location of the Su-24, saying the plane was flying at an altitude of 6,000 metres over Syrian territory when it was hit. It also said the aircraft may have been downed by artillery fire.
Turkey’s military said it had warned the aircraft ten times in five minutes before two Turkish F-16s moved in and shot down the jet.
The latest incident will likely further stoke regional and international tensions over the ramifications of Moscow’s military involvement in Syria.
Video footage from Turkey's state-run Anadolu agency showed a fighter jet in flames plummeting to the ground, eventually disappearing behind the ridge of a hill in a cloud of smoke. The video also showed the parachutes of two ejected pilots drifting toward the ground.
Rebel and opposition activist sources said one of the pilots was killed by opposition forces who shot at him as he landed after ejecting from the plane. The second pilot is still missing
Several videos circulating online and shared on opposition social media sites purported to show the dead pilot surrounded by rebels from different factions.
Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the warplane crashed in the Turkmen Mountains region in the coastal province of Latakia.
Syrian troops have been on the offensive in the area that is controlled by several insurgent groups including Al Qaeda’s branch in Syria, Jabhat Al Nusra.
Moscow began an air campaign in Syria on September 30, striking against rebel and extremist targets in cooperation with the government of president Bashar Al Assad.
The air campaign has been criticised for focusing on rebel groups fighting the Syrian government instead of ISIL.
Since the Kremlin’s military intervention, Turkey has accused Russian jets of violating its airspace on several occasions.
Russia and Turkey find themselves on opposite sides of the Syrian war, with Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan a staunch opponent of the Assad regime, which Russia backs.
Before Russia’s military intervention, Turkey was pushing a plan that would see its military help create a zone for rebels in northern Syria that would be free of ISIL fighters, but Ankara has taken no concrete steps toward a more hands-on intervention thus far.
The downing of the Su-24 comes at a time when the Kremlin has been seen as looking to further expand its air power in the Middle East.
Last Friday, Russia asked Lebanon to shut down its airspace so its naval forces in the Mediterranean could conduct drills. That request was denied.
And on Monday, Iraq closed its northern airspace to civilian air traffic in anticipation of Russia stepping up cruise missile strikes on Syria from its naval assets in the Caspian Sea.
While Russia has in the past voiced opposition to the US-led anti-ISIL coalition’s strikes in Syria - calling them illegal - it softened its tone in recent days.
President Vladimir Putin ordered his forces in the Mediterranean Sea to coordinate strikes against ISIL with French forces in the aftermath of the November 13 attacks in Paris.
foreign.desk@thenational.ae
* with additional reporting from agencies