President Vladimir Putin has said Turkey’s downing of a Russian warplane near the Syrian border is a “stab in the back” committed by “accomplices of terrorists”. The Russian warplane was shot down on the Syrian border for violating Turkish airspace on Tuesday, Turkish officials said.
Turkish officials told Al Jazeera it was shot down by the Turkish military according to the rules of engagement, but Putin said the jet posed no threat. “Today’s loss is linked to a stab in the back delivered to us by accomplices of terrorists. I cannot qualify what happened today as anything else,” Putin said in televised comments. “Our plane was shot down over the territory of Syria by an air-to-air missile from a Turkish F-16 jet. It fell in Syrian territory four kilometres from the border with Turkey. Our pilots and our plane did not in any way threaten Turkey.”
Reports said the plane, believed to be a Russian-made Sukhoi Su-24, crashed in Syrian territory in Latakia’s Yamadi village. A Turkish military statement said the plane violated Turkish airspace in Hatay province and was warned “10 times in five minutes”. “Our two F-16 planes on air patrol duty intervened … on November 24, 2015, 9:24am, according to the rules of engagement,” the statement said. Rebel forces have told Al Jazeera that bodies of both pilots have been recovered.
