4 die in Gaza as violence escalates
ANKARA, Syria shot down a Turkish fighter jet while it was flying in international airspace some 15 minutes after momentarily straying into Syria’s territory, Turkey’s foreign minister said on Sunday.
“According to our conclusions, our plane was shot down in international airspace, 13 nautical miles from Syria,” Ahmet Davutoglu told TRT television.
“The plane did not show any sign of hostility toward Syria and was shot down about 15 minutes after having momentarily violated Syrian airspace,” he said.
The minister said that there was no warning from Syria before it shot down the plane, which did not have arms and was flying on a training mission and undertaking a radar system test.
“The Syrians knew full well that it was a Turkish military plane and the nature of its mission,” he said.
Syria has said it took out the F-4 phantom jet on Friday after it violated its airspace and on Saturday Turkey acknowledged that the plane may have done so in comments seen as a bid to cool tensions between the former allies.
On Saturday, Turkey’s president said that his country would do “whatever is necessary” in response to the downing of a Turkish military jet by Syria, adding a new complication to the tense relationship between the former allies split by Turkey’s support for Syrian rebels trying to overthrow the government.
“It is not possible to cover over a thing like this,” said President Abdullah Gul of Turkey, according to the Anatolia news agency. “Whatever is necessary will no doubt be done.”
Gul said Saturday that while the exact route of the plane had not yet been confirmed, it was routine for military jets flying at high speeds to briefly cross into another country’s airspace, and that the jet’s presence over Syrian territory was not intended as a hostile act.
The plane went down over the Mediterranean off the coast of the Syrian province of Latakia and south of the Turkish province of Hatay. On Saturday, Turkish officials confirmed that parts of the jet had been recovered.
Gul said the two governments were communicating at a high level despite the absence of a Turkish ambassador in Syria since Turkey closed its embassy in March. Syria’s state news agency, SANA, reported that the Syrian and Turkish navies had established contact and were searching for the missing pilots.
Syria appeared eager to try to defuse the crisis. “We have no hostile intentions against Turkey,” Jihad Makdessi, a spokesperson for the Syrian Foreign Ministry, told the Lebanese broadcaster LBC.
But Gul’s promise to respond—he did not specify whether he meant diplomatic or military measures—signaled Turkey’s anger. Faruk Celik, Turkey’s labor and social security minister, said that even if Syria’s airspace had been violated, the Syrian response was unacceptable. “Turkey cannot endure it in silence,” Celik said.
The episode was another blow to relations between the neighbors, who were close before President Bashar Assad of Syria began his crackdown on protests 16 months ago, setting off a revolt by political and militia groups now supported by Turkey.
Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has been one of the most strident critics of Assad’s government and its long crackdown, which has killed thousands since it began in March 2011.
Since then, Turkey has allowed more than 32,000 refugees to seek shelter in a string of camps across its 885kilometer border with Syria. It has also provided crucial support to dissident groups and the Free Syrian Army, an anti-Assad militia whose leaders live under the protection of Turkish security forces in a fortified camp near the Syrian border. TEL AVIV, Israel—Despite a pledged ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel, attacks escalated on both sides of the Gaza border on Saturday, killing at least three Palestinian men and a 6-year-old boy in Gaza, and wounding an Israeli man in Sderot, officials said. Ayman Taha, a spokesperson for the Hamas government, which rules Gaza, said Saturday night that the Egyptian-brokered agreement, reached Thursday, did not specify “a certain hour for the ceasefire to take effect.” Spokespersons for the Israel Defense Forces and for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would not discuss the ceasefire. But as two dozen rockets rained down on the weary neighborhoods near Gaza City, the Israeli military chief, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, called a rare Sabbath meeting of top aides to “determine the next course of action,” according to a military spokesperson.