Wednesday, 25 November 2015

Russian 'antique' falls to tricked-out F16s

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also appealed to Turkey and Russia to reduce tensions.



Ban hopes "a credible and thorough review will clarify the events and help prevent future recurrences," U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

"He urges all those who are engaged in military activities in Syria, especially air campaigns, to maximize operational measures to avoid unintended consequences," Dujarric said.

Turkey shot down the Russian warplane near the Syrian border, saying the jet had violated its airspace, in one of the most serious publicly acknowledged clashes between a NATO member country and Russia for half a century.

But Putin said the plane had been attacked when it was 1 km (0.62 mile) inside Syria and warned of "serious consequences" for what he termed a stab in the back administered by "the accomplices of terrorists".

"We will never tolerate such crimes like the one committed today," Putin said

In a letter to the U.N. Security Council, Turkish U.N. Ambassador Halit Cevik said two planes approached Turkish airspace on Tuesday morning and were warned 10 times in five minutes to change direction.

Cevik said both planes then flew more than a mile into Turkey for 17 seconds. He said the nationality of the planes was unknown.

Meanwhile, the Turkish President said in a speech in Ankara: "Nobody should doubt that we made our best efforts to avoid this latest incident. But everyone should respect the right of Turkey to defend its borders."

In condemnation of Russian air strikes in Syria, during which Turkish air space has been violated several times in recent weeks, Erdogan said that only Turkey's "cool-headedness" had prevented worse incidents in the past.

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