The Turkish air force shot down a Syrian plane on Sunday that Ankara said had crossed into its air space where Syrian rebels have been battling President Bashar al-Assad’s forces to control a border crossing.
“A Syrian plane violated our airspace,” Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told an election rally in northwest Turkey.
“Our F-16s took off and hit this plane. Why? Because if you violate my airspace, our slap after this will be hard.”Syria condemned what it called a “blatant aggression” and said the jet was pursuing rebel fighters inside Syria.
It said the pilot had managed to eject before the plane crashed. One plane entered Turkish airspace at Yayladagi, east of the Kasab border crossing. A Turkish F-16 fired a rocket at the Syrian jet, and it crashed around 1,200 meters (1,300 yards) inside Syrian territory, according to Turkish General Staff.
