Turkey shoots down Russian fighter over border with Syria

After rebels killed one pilot from the jet shot down by Turkey, the other has been picked up by the Syrian army.

This video grab by Haberturk TV, shows a Russian warplane on fire before crashing.

Russian President Vladimir Putin says a second pilot from a Russian warplane that was shot down by Turkey near the Syrian border has been rescued.

Putin was speaking in televised comments on Wednesday after Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told Russian news agencies that the man was rescued in a 12-hour operation which ended in the early hours on Wednesday and is now “safe and sound” at Russia’s air base in the government-controlled area in Syria.

Earlier Russia’s defence ministry said the first pilot was killed by opposition forces who shot at him as he landed after ejecting from the plane.

Several videos circulating online and shared on opposition social media sites purported to show the dead pilot surrounded by rebels from different factions.

Fadi Ahmed, a spokesman for the First Coastal Front rebel group, said “the Russian pilot was killed by gunfire as he fell with his parachute” in the Jabal Turkman area of Latakia province on the coast.

“The 10th Brigade (rebel group) transferred the body of the dead Russian to the local rebel joint operations room,” added Omar Jablawi, a media activist working with rebels in the area.

He declined to specify exactly where the joint operations room was located. AFP

We don’t want to escalate tensions

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says his country does not wish to escalate tensions with Russia over the downing of the plane.

Speaking at an Organization of Islamic Cooperation economy meeting in Istanbul, Erdogan said Wednesday that Turkey favors “peace, dialogue and diplomacy.”

Erdogan however defended his country’s move to shoot down the plane saying “no one should expect Turkey to stay silent to border violations or the violation of its rights.”

Turkey said the Russian warplane was shot down on Tuesday after it ignored repeated warnings and crossed into its airspace from Syria.

Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced what he called a “stab in the back” and warned of “significant consequences.”

Jet was hit inside Syria

The Russian jet shot down by Turkey was hit inside Syria after a brief incursion into Turkish airspace, a US official has told Reuters.

Ankara has said its jets shot down the Russian aircraft after it violated Turkish airspace 10 times within a five-minute period, a move that the Russian president denounced as a “stab in the back” by Turkey.

Russia has insisted the jet was all the time inside Syrian airspace and condemned the downing as “a very serious incident”.

But US military officials told The Wall St Journal they head as many as 10 radio calls from the Turks to the Russians and didn’t hear the Russians respond.

Obama urges Russia to focus attacks on IS

US President Barack Obama and French President Francois Hollande have pressed Russia to focus its attacks in Syria on Islamic State militants after Turkey heightened tensions in the region by downing a Russian plane.

Mr Obama and Mr Hollande also urged Russia and Turkey not to let the situation escalate after Turkey, a NATO ally, said it shot down a Russian warplane near the Turkish-Syrian border after it repeatedly violated Turkish air space.

Mr Obama said the US did not have enough information yet to form conclusions about the incident, but added similar confrontations could be avoided if Russia stopped attacking “moderate” Syrian rebels who are battling forces loyal to the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

“This points to an ongoing problem with the Russian operations in the sense that they are operating very close to a Turkish border and they are going after moderate opposition that are supported by not only Turkey but a wide range of countries,” Mr Obama said.

If Russia directs its energies toward IS forces, “some of those conflicts or potentials for mistakes or escalation are less likely to occur”, Mr Obama added.

Russia is supporting Assad’s government. Western nations insist Assad needs to step down for peace to take hold in Syria.

A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters the US believed the Russian jet was hit inside Syrian air space after a brief incursion into Turkish air space. The assessment was based on heat observed from the jet, the official said.

Turkey’s downing of the warplane is the most serious incident involving Russian forces since they entered the conflict in support of Assad.

Russia condemned the Turkish action, vowing severe consequences. A furious President Vladimir Putin accused NATO-member Turkey of “a stab in the back”.

Obama and Hollande joined UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in warning against any escalation.

In a call, Obama and Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan “agreed on the importance of de-escalating the situation and pursuing arrangements to ensure that such incidents do not happen again”, the White House said.

The US military has backed up Turkey’s claim that Turkish pilots warned the Russian jet 10 times - but failed to get a response - before shooting it down.

Obama expressed “US and NATO support for Turkey’s right to defend its sovereignty”, the White House statement added.

But he also appealed to Russia to engage at the side of the 65 countries battling IS in Syria.

“Given Russia’s military capabilities and the influence they have on the Assad regime, them co-operating would be enormously helpful in bringing about resolution of the civil war in Syria,” Obama said.

“If and when they do, it will make it easier for us to go after ISIL.”

Russian pilot ‘killed’

Moscow said one of two pilots who ejected from the Su-24 plane was killed by gunfire from the ground as he descended, although Turkish officials insisted both were still alive.

A Russian soldier was also killed when a helicopter search-and-rescue operation came under fire, the Russian defence ministry said.

“The plane fell in Syrian territory, four kilometres from the border. The crew ejected. According to preliminary information, one of the pilot died after being fired upon from the ground,” military spokesman General Sergei Rudskoi said in televised remarks.

The claims appear to be backed by an unauthenticated video released by Syrian activists that show rebels with what appears to be the dead body of an airman.

Earlier, Vladimir Putin slammed Turkey as “accomplices of terror” and the Russian military announced it would cease all military contact with Turkey.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop declined to endorse the versions of events proffered by either side.

“The investigation is yet to take place, the facts are not yet clear, and Australia will of course await a detailed analysis of what occurred,” she said.

Turkey shoots down Russian jet

Earlier, Turkish media said one pilot had been captured by rebel forces in Syria after both ejected by parachute while Syrian opposition sources said one was dead and another missing.

The fighter jet exploded in midair, crashing in a fireball onto a mountain on the Syrian side of the border, television pictures showed.

VIDEO: Better quality footage of warplane shot down by the Turkish army crashing inside #Syria - @zaidbenjamin pic.twitter.com/4MGn0fpVFh

— Conflict News (@Conflicts) November 24, 2015

The presence of aircraft from Russia, the US, France, Turkey and a clutch of Gulf states in Syrian skies had long raised fears of an incident that could quickly escalate into a major diplomatic and military crisis.

Turkey has summoned the Russian envoy to Ankara over the incident, which comes on the eve of a visit by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to the country.

Russia confirmed that one of its planes had been downed at an altitude of 6000m but said it appeared to have been shot down from the ground.

“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 is a very serious incident,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

The Turkish army said that the downing took place over the Yayladagi district of Turkey’s Hatay province on the border with Syria.

“The plane violated Turkish air space 10 times in five minutes despite warnings,” the army said in a statement, adding it was shot down by at 9.24am (6.24pm AEDT) “according to the rules of engagement”.

Reports said two pilots had ejected from the plane and Turkish television pictures showed two white parachutes descending to the ground.

CNN-Turk said Syrian Turkmen forces fighting the Russian-backed regime of President Bashar al-Assad had captured one pilot.

Syrian opposition sources meanwhile said one pilot was dead, the second missing.

Turkey’s Dogan news agency broadcast footage of what it said was Russian helicopters flying over Syrian territory in an apparent search for the lost men.

The incident came as Russian and Syrian jets are waging a heavy bombing campaign against targets in northern Syria.

Turkey has expressed anger at the operation, saying it is aimed at buttressing the Syrian regime and has displaced thousands of Turkmen Syrians, an ethnic minority in the area and strong allies of Ankara.

Russia however insists the air strikes are aimed against Islamic State jihadists.

At Ankara’s request, NATO allies will hold an “extraordinary” meeting early today to discuss the incident, an alliance official said.

“NATO is monitoring the situation closely. We are in contact with Turkish authorities.”

Russian fighter jets entered Turkish airspace in two separate incidents in October, prompting Ankara to summon the Russian ambassador twice to protest both violations.

Turkey and Russia have long been at loggerheads over the Syrian conflict, with Ankara seeking Assad’s overthrow while Moscow does everything to keep him in power.

The Turkish military in October also shot down a Russian-made drone that had entered its airspace. But Moscow denied the drone belonged to its forces.

It remains to be seen what action Turkey could call for at NATO. Turkey in July invoked NATO’s rarely-used article four — which allows any member to request a meeting of all 28 NATO ambassadors — over its campaign against Kurdish rebels.

Mr Lavrov is due to visit Turkey today in a bid to smooth ties and find a joint approach to finding peace in Syria.

Along with Saudi Arabia and the US, Turkey and Russia are taking part in talks in Vienna that aim to narrow differences on the Syria conflict and have taken on an extra importance after the Paris attacks.

A Turkish foreign ministry official said Mr Lavrov’s visit would go ahead as planned: “There is no change in the program.”

With AFP/Reuters/AP