TURKEY has confirmed that it shot down a Russian fighter jet, claiming it had violated Turkish airspace and ignored repeated warnings.
Russia said the Su-24 jet was downed by artillery fire while on a bombing mission in Syria, but Turkey claimed its F-16s fired on the plane after it ignored several warnings.
Russia denies that the plane crossed the Syrian border into Turkish skies, with a defence ministry statement saying: “We are looking into the circumstances of the crash of the Russian jet. The Ministry of Defence would like to stress that the plane was over the Syrian territory throughout the flight.”
Video footage of the incident shows a warplane on fire before crashing on ahill, and two crew members can be seen apparently parachuting to safety.
The Russian defence ministry said the pilots ejected but Moscow has had no further contact with them.
A Turkish military statement said the plane entered its airspace over the town of Yayladagi, in Hatay province. It said the plane was warned 10 times within the space of five minutes
Last month, Turkish jets shot down an unidentified drone that it said had violated Turkey’s airspace.World on the brink of war against IS – click here to read more
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