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.”