Shot down and world holds breath: Putin rages as Turkey blasts bomber

David Cameron wont condemn attack on Russian warplane 

FURIOUS Vladimir Putin yesterday raged that his country had been “stabbed in the back” after Turkish fighter jets shot a Russian warplane out of the sky.

Warplane crashes in Syria near Turkey's border

The President warned of “serious consequences” over the downed Sukhoi Su-24, which Turkey claims ignored ten warnings to keep out of its airspace at the Syrian border.

Amid fears over possible reprisals and the impact on the troubled region Britain last night took Turkey’s side, with David Cameron refusing to condemn its Nato ally. Downing Street insisted the UK “respects Turkey’s right to protect its airspeace”.

And No10 signalled RAF jets stationed in Cyprus will be at Turkey’s disposal if the drama spirals.

Footage showed the burning Russian plane plunging towards a woodland area before disappearing in a cloud of smoke over Syria.

Two pilots who ejected were both feared to have been killed by Syrian rebels who were filmed spraying bullets at the parachuting pair while chanting “Allahu Akbar”, Arabic for “God is great”.
A Turkish official last night insisted they were still alive.

A Russian-made Syrian helicopter searching for the crewmen was later blown up by the fighters.
Moscow last night confirmed the helicopter was one of its own fleet and that one Russian serviceman was killed in the attack.

As the international fight against IS was plunged into a fresh crisis, Mr Putin claimed Turkey has been funding the terror group by buying oil from them. He also accused Ankara of protecting the jihadists with the country’s military.

He said yesterday: “The loss we suffered today came from a stab in the back delivered by accomplices of the terrorists.

Plane plummets towards the ground

“We will never tolerate such atrocities as happened today and we hope that the international community will find the strength to join forces and fight this evil.

“Today’s tragic event will have serious consequences for Russian-Turkish relations.”

At least two Russian Su-24 planes had been running sorties over the Turkmen Mountains on the Syria border yesterday.

The jets were there to help embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in a ground offensive.
The Turkmen region is populated by Syrian citizens who are ethnic Turks, as well as other insurgent groups including al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria, the al-Nusra Front and The Free Syrian Army.

Turkey called this week for a UN Security Council meeting to discuss attacks on Turkmens in Syria and last week Ankara summoned the Russian ambassador to protest.

Jet crashes in a ball of fire

But Turkey took direct action at 7.24am yesterday as its F-16s shot down the Russian plane with air-to-air missiles, at an altitude of 6,000ft. It claimed the aircraft had repeatedly violated its airspace and ignored ten warnings in five minutes, a statement backed up by the US military.

Officials said a second plane had also approached the border and been warned off. A senior Turkish official said: “The data we have is very clear. There were two planes approaching our border, we warned them as they were getting too close. We warned them many times.

“Our findings show clearly that Turkish airspace was violated multiple times. “And they violated it knowingly.”Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu added his country had the right “to take all kinds of measures” against border violations according to international laws.



But Putin said the plane had been attacked when it was more than half-a-mile inside Syria.

A Russian defence ministry spokesman said: “For the duration of the flight, the aircraft was exclusively over Syrian territory.”

It is the first time a Russian plane has crashed in Syria since Moscow launched air strikes against militants fighting Assad in late September. Mr Davutoglu rang David Cameron to talk him through the incident yesterday afternoon.

He insisted his country’s F-16s only opened fire on the Su-24 bomber after it ignored repeated warnings not to cross the Syrian border into Turkish airspace.

The PM “strongly encouraged” Russia and Turkey to talk directly to each other as soon as possible to “avoid an escalation”, his official spokeswoman said. She added: “We still remain willing to help a Nato ally.
“There are procedures in place for flying through a country’s airspace. You need to seek permission and have it granted.”

The incident will make Mr Cameron’s efforts to persuade MPs to back RAF jets joining the mission to bomb IS in Syria as early as next week far more difficult. A confrontation between rival air forces in the region’s crowded skies has been long feared by critics of military action.

But Mr Cameron will still press ahead with his statement to the Commons tomorrow to ask for its support ahead of a landmark vote next week. His spokeswoman insisted: “It does not change two important factors — the threat posed by IS to the UK, and the need to work in a coalition to be doing more.

” It emerged the PM will meet DUP leaders Nigel Dodds and Jeffrey Donaldson today to ask for the backing of their eight MPs. Russian and Turkish shares both fell on fears of a rapid escalation in tensions between the former Cold War enemies.

Each country summoned a diplomatic representative of the other and Nato called an “extraordinary” meeting of its ambassadors. Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov cancelled a visit to Turkey that had been due today.
Lavrov also advised Russians not to visit Turkey and one of Russia’s largest tour operators to the country said it would temporarily suspend sales of trips. Nearly 4.5million Russians visited Turkey in 2014, 12 per cent of all tourists and second only to Germans.

Turkey and Russia have long been at loggerheads over the Syrian conflict with Ankara seeking Assad’s overthrow while Moscow tries to keep him in power. US President Barack Obama said of the crisis: “Turkey, like every country, has a right to defend its territory and its airspace.”

Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said the US was “not able to conclude definitely” if the plane came down over Turkey or Syria.
Mr Obama added: “I do think that this points to an ongoing problem with the Russian operations in the sense that they are operating very close to a Turkish border. “They are going after moderate opposition that are supported by not only Turkey but a wide range of countries.

“If Russia is directing its energies toward Daesh (IS), some of those mistakes are less likely to occur.”