Istanbul: Turkey’s armed forces shot down a Syrian plane on Sunday after it crossed into Turkish air space in a border region where Syrian rebels have been battling President Bashar Al Assad’s forces.
“A Syrian plane violated our airspace,” Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told an election rally of his supporters in northwest Turkey.
“Our F-16s took off and hit this plane. Why? Because if you violate my airspace, our slap after this will be hard.”
The rebels have been fighting for control of the Kasab crossing, the border region, since Friday, when they launched an offensive which Syrian authorities say was backed by Turkey’s military.
Syria said Turkish air defences shot down the jet while it was attacking rebel forces inside Syrian territory, calling the move a “blatant aggression”.
State television quoted a military source as saying the pilot managed to eject from the plane. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said initial reports from the area said the plane came down on the Syrian side of the border.
Al Manar, the television station of Al Assad’s Lebanese ally Hezbollah, said two rockets had been fired from Turkish territory at the Syrian jet.
Turkish media reported that the army warned two Syrian jets approaching the border to turn away, but scrambled its F-16 jets when one refused to abide by the warning.
Turkish warplanes last year downed a Syrian helicopter, which Ankara said was detected two kilometres inside Turkish airspace.
Turkey toughened its rules of engagement after the downing of one of its fighter jets by the Syrian air force in June 2012, to say that any military approach of the Turkish border from Syria would be considered a threat.
