Syria Confirms Shooting Down Turkish Aircraft; Tensions Between Countries Escalate
As if things weren’t hostile enough between the two, the Syrian military admitted to shooting down a Turkish aircraft for allegedly violating its airspace near the Turkish-Syrian border:
Turkish-Syrian Relations Worsen after Turkish Aircraft Attacked
Turkey announced that it holds Syria responsible for shooting down a Turkish F-4 jet aircraft near the Turkish-Syrian border on Friday, and that a search is underway for the whereabouts of the aircraft’s two missing pilots.
A statement issued by the office of Turkey’s Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said that the events surrounding the incident are being investigated, and that Turkey intends to respond ‘in a decisive manner’ once all details have been clarified.
In the wake of the Turkish statement, the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported that according to a Syrian military representative, the Turkish aircraft was hit by antiaircraft artillery in response to its flight in Syrian airspace over the country’s territorial waters. The report further claims that the aircraft ‘had been dealt with in accordance to the law.”
This latest incident has created more tension between the two countries, whose relations have suffered greatly with the progression of the Syrian civil war..