From Fox News.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that Turkey’s decision to shoot down a Russian warplane near Turkey’s border with Syria is a “stab in the back” and it would have “significant consequences” for its relations with Turkey, as NATO called an emergency meeting over the incident.
Putin said the Russian Sukhoi-24 jet was shot by a missile from a Turkish jet over Syria about just over a half-mile away from the Turkish border, which he described as a “stab in the back by the terrorists’ accomplices.” Turkey said it warned the jet several times that it was in its airspace.
Putin was meeting with Jordanian King Abdullah II in Sochi. Prior to the meeting, The New York Times said Putin was “speaking slowly and clearly angry.”
NATO called an emergency meeting in Brussels on Tuesday after the incident.
“The aim of this extraordinary North Atlantic Council meeting is for Turkey to inform allies about the downing of a Russian airplane,” NATO’s deputy spokesperson Carmen Romero told the Associated Press.
……A spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition based out of Baghdad said the U.S. indeed heard Turkey on “open channels” issue 10 warnings to the Russian jet before the incident.
Rebels said they fired at the two parachuting pilots as they descended, and that one had died. A rebel spokesman said they would consider releasing the body in exchange for prisoners held by Syria. The fate of the second pilot was not immediately known.
U.S. defense official said that two Turkish F-16s fired heat-seeking air-to-air missiles at the Russian aircraft.
“This will get complicated,” the official said.
That’s a fucking understatement:
Here is who is backing who in Syria:
The US and UK
Back: More “moderate elements” among the rebel forces in Syria.
Oppose: The regime of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, Isis and other extremist groups.
Russia
Backs: President Assad.
Opposes: Isis and the other extremist groups allied with it.
Turkey
Backs: US-led coalition and, tacitly, rebel forces in Syria.
Opposes: The Assad government and Kurdish separatists allied with the PKK, as well as Isis.
Iran
Backs: President Assad and the Syrian government.
Opposes: Sunni insurgents, Isis and other Sunni extremists.
Saudi Arabia
Backs: A number of rebel groups who are currently fighting the Syrian government.
Opposes: President Assad and the Syrian government.
Qatar
Backs: A number of rebel groups fighting the Syrian government.
Opposes: President Assad and the Syrian government.
France
Backs: More “moderate elements” among the rebel forces in Syria.
Opposes: The government of President Assad, Isis and other Islamic extremist groups.
Add this to the mix: Syrian rebels accused Turkey of tipping off Al Qaeda before a group of U.S. trained Syrian rebels entered Syria to fight Al Qaeda’s Nusra Front, resulting in their capture.
And by the way, Turkey is no ally of the United States.
It’s already complicated.
Related articles:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/nov/24/pentagon-backs-turkeys-version-accuses-russian-fig/
Related posts:
https://sfcmac.wordpress.com/2015/09/14/russia-building-foothold-in-middle-east/
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