Putin: Turkey ‘Knew Downed Fighter Jet Was Russian’

Russia has rejected Turkey’s claims that it did not know the plane it shot down on the Syria border was Russian.

President Vladimir Putin said Russian planes were easily identifiable and the jet’s flight co-ordinates had been passed on to Turkey’s ally, the US.

Turkey’s president said earlier if it had known the plane was Russian “maybe we would have warned it differently”.

Mr Putin was speaking after meeting his French counterpart and pledging closer co-operation against Islamic State.

IS claimed the 13 November attacks in Paris which killed 130 people.

Russia and France have agreed to co-operate more closely in fighting terrorism in Syria. The two countries will exchange intelligence on Islamic State – and co-ordinate air strikes.

But differences remain over the fate of the Syrian leader. President Hollande made it clear that Bashar al-Assad could play no role in his country’s future. President Putin said that was up to the Syrian people to decide.

And there is no sign of the kind of “grand coalition” against terror that France had been calling for, one that would include America.

Speaking at a news conference after the talks, President Putin even suggested that Turkey had shot down the Russian bomber this week after receiving information about its location from the US.

Two Russian servicemen died after the Russian SU-24 plane crashed into a mountainside on Syrian soil on Tuesday after being hit by a missile from a Turkish F-16 fighter jet.

The Turkish military said it sent several warnings to the jet before firing, some 17 seconds after the plane entered Turkish air space.

A surviving Russian pilot said he had received no such warning and was adamant they did not stray out of Syrian air space.

BBC

Posted by Editor on November 27, 2015. Filed under World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry