Turkey confirms that Syria shot down warplane

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Hürriyet photo

Turkey has officially announced that one of its jets was shot down yesterday by Syria while vowing to take the necessary steps once the incident is fully clarified.

"In the light of the information gathered, it's been understood that our aircraft was shot down by Syria," said a government statement issue following a high-level security meeting late yesterday.

Search and rescue efforts to locate the plane’s two missing pilots are continuing, it said, adding that the efforts were being assisted by Syrian vessels.

"Turkey will take all necesary steps and will take its final position after the full [explanation] of the incident," the statement said.

A Turkish source had said yesterday that Syria expressed sorrow after the incident, in which a Turkish jet went down in Syrian territorial waters just before noon yesterday.

Meanwhile, US State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said “We’ve seen the reports you’ve seen. We have obviously been in contact with our Turkish ally. But with regard to the specifics of the case, I think we’re going to let the Turks speak to it rather than speak to it ourselves. I think we’ll let the Turks speak to it. To my knowledge, they haven’t raised this at NATO at this point.”