Turkey shot down a Syrian fighter jet Sunday after the warplane strayed into its airspace, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.
According to CNN :”Our F-16s went up in the air and shot that plane down. Why? Because if you violate my airspace, then from now on, our slap will be hard,” Erdogan told supporters at a campaign rally.
There was no immediate response to the claim from Syria, where a civil war periodically spills over its neighbors’ borders.
The Turkish armed forces website reported that two Syrian planes were spotted and were warned four times about approaching Turkish airspace as they flew north in Syrian airspace.
One plane left the area but the second plane continued, and entered Turkish airspace by approximately 1 kilometer (six-tenths of a mile). The plane turned west and continued to fly into Turkish airspace, according to the site.
One of the two Turkish F-16s patrolling the area launched a missile at the Syrian plane and it crashed in the area of Kesep, in Syrian territory about 1200 meters (three-quarters of a mile) south of the border, Turkish armed forces said.