Turkey downs Syrian warplane
U.S. officials tour camps on border
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey shot down a Syrian fighter jet in Syria’s Idlib province Tuesday, marking the third such incident in as many days, as steady clashes between the two national armies continued over a Russia-backed Syrian government offensive near the Turkish border.
State-run Syrian media said troops shot down a Turkish drone, keeping up a clash in the skies over the northwestern province that has gone on for days.
Meanwhile, three top U.S. officials toured Turkey’s border with Syria on Tuesday, even briefly crossing into Syrian territory, in a concerted effort to underscore one point: The United States is throwing its full support behind its NATO ally in its new fight against the Syrian government and its Russian backers.
As part of the tour, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Kelly Knight Craft visited a refugee camp and a border crossing, joined by U.S. Ambassador to Turkey David Satterfield and the U.S. envoy to Syria, James Jeffrey. Throughout the trip, all praised their Turkish hosts, lauding what they characterized as Turkey’s hospitality toward Syrian refugees in the country and its seamless coordination of cross-border humanitarian assistance.
Ahead of a summit later this week between the presidents of Turkey and Russia, the two main power brokers in Syria, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov again laid the blame for the escalation squarely on Turkey.
Russian officials have said they hold Turkey responsible for the collapse of a cease-fire agreement reached in Sochi, Russia, in 2018, saying Ankara had not held up its end to rein in militants who continued attacking Syrian and Russian targets.
Lavrov expressed hope that the scheduled Thursday meeting between Russian and Turkish presidents in Moscow will change the situation.
At the Syrian side of the Bab al-Hawa crossing, Craft posed in front of a “Welcome to Syria” sign with members of the White Helmets, a civil defense organization that rescues people from rubble after Syrian and Russian airstrikes.
Earlier, at a U.N. site for loading trucks with humanitarian supplies, Craft praised Turkish efforts in dealing with refugees and pledged $108 million to U.N. agencies, partly meeting agencies’ request for $500 million in emergency aid to deal with the humanitarian crisis brought on by the renewed Idlib offensive.
“Humanitarian aid is only a response,” she said. “The real answer is an immediate ceasefire, a durable cease-fire.”
Jeffrey and Satterfield also reiterated that the United States stands by its Turkish allies. Jeffrey said that in addition to humanitarian assistance, the United States is willing to provide ammunition to help Ankara in its standoff with Damascus and its “evil” backer Russia.
“We’ve got to ensure they have what they need” in Syria, Jeffrey said. “This is a NATO ally. And the Turks laid out a number of requests of NATO. We’re pressing NATO to be responsive.”
Keeping up the pressure on the battlefield, Turkey’s military downed a warplane belonging to Syrian government forces — for the third time since Sunday. The Syrian military said Turkish forces targeted a warplane with a missile as it was carrying out operations against “terrorist groups” in the rebel-held Idlib region, causing it to crash northwest of the town of Maaret al-Numan.