The complications of acting in Syria have just become more apparent. The Russians are fighting in support of Assad – but Turkey, a Nato member, is backing anti-Assad rebels and has just shot down a Russian Su-24 jet. The Turkish foreign ministry says that the pilots were warned ‘ten times in five minutes’ that they were violating Turkish airspace. The pilots managed to eject and video footage has emerged:-
The aircraft came down near the Antakya mountains, where Turkmen rebels (backed by Turkey) are fighting Isil and Assad’s forces (blue areas, below).
The Su-24s, owned by both Assad’s regime and Russia itself, have been bombing rebel positions for some time. Turkey has been warning the Russians that their jets were straying too far into the wrong airspace, and could be shot down. Today, it has shown that it’s quite serious.
The Kremlin doesn’t like the idea of its aircraft being downed by Turkish F-16s; the Russian Foreign Ministry has claimed that the Su-24 was downed by a ground-launched missile. It
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