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Turkey shoots down Russian fighter plane

This frame grab from video by Haberturk TV, shows smoke from a Russian warplane after crashing on a hill as seen from Hatay province, Turkey, Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2015. Turkey shot down the Russian warplane Tuesday, claiming it had violated Turkish airspace and ignored repeated warnings. Russia denied that the plane crossed the Syrian border into Turkish skies.
This frame grab from video by Haberturk TV, shows smoke from a Russian warplane after crashing on a hill as seen from Hatay province, Turkey, Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2015. Turkey shot down the Russian warplane Tuesday, claiming it had violated Turkish airspace and ignored repeated warnings. Russia denied that the plane crossed the Syrian border into Turkish skies.
Mitchell Prothero McClatchy Washington Bureau

IRBIL, Iraq – The Turkish military Tuesday announced it shot down a Russian military aircraft near the Syrian border after it ignored multiple warnings and entered Turkish airspace, a charge Moscow immediately denied.

According to social media reports, which include videos, an Ankara-aligned Syrian rebel group captured one of the two pilots bailing out of the plane, which was filmed crashing. The other pilot remains missing, but some footage released on local television and social media showed what appeared to be one of the pilots dead and his body being examined by Arabic speaking rebels.

The Russian defense ministry confirmed a plane that identified as an SU-24 strike aircraft had been shot down by ground fire over what it insists was Syrian airspace, where the Russians have conducted more than 4,000 airstrikes in the past two months in support of their ally, President Bashar Assad of Syria.

Initial Turkish media reports say that F-16s intercepted two Russian planes as they approached Turkish airspace along the border and that one ignored 10 verbal warnings to turn back before the decision to shoot the plane down was approved.

In a statement the Turkish military said, “On Nov. 24, 2015 around 09:20 a.m. in Hatay Yayladag region, a plane of unknown nationality violated Turkish air space, more than 10 times in five minutes and was repeatedly warned about the violation,” it said. “The interception action was done in line with the engagement rules of Turkey at 09:24 by the two F-16s patrolling in the area.”

Turkish officials told McClatchy they were prepared to provide NATO with coordinates; radar and radio traffic to prove the incident took place in Turkish airspace.

The incident could not come at a worse time in terms of Turkish-Russian relations, as Ankara has accused the large-scale Russian air campaign as supporting Assad against rebels aligned with Turkey and the West, while virtually ignoring the Islamic State, which is the focus of a broad U.S.-led coalition of air strikes and occasional special operations attacks.

According to the Russian defense ministry, they operate at least 32 fixed wing aircraft from a base in western Syria, while long range bombers and cruise missiles from outside the region have also participated in strikes. The use of the long-range bombers, which must cross Iranian and Iraqi air space to reach Syria, led to the closure this week of Iraqi airspace to commercial flights.