Putin: Downing of Russian Jet Over Syria Stab
in the Back by Terrorist Accomplices
By RT
November 24, 2015 "Information
Clearing House" - "RT"
- Turkey backstabbed Russia by downing the Russian warplane and
acted as accomplices of the terrorists, Russian President
Vladimir Putin said.
“This incident stands out against the usual
fight against terrorism. Our troops are fighting heroically
against terrorists, risking their lives. But the loss we
suffered today came from a stab in the back delivered by
accomplices of the terrorists,” Putin said.
'This incident stands out against
the usual fight against terrorism. Our troops
are fighting heroically against terrorists,
risking their lives. But the loss we suffered
today came from a stab in the back delivered by
accomplices of the terrorists.' Full Putin's
comment: http://on.rt.com/6xfi
Putin said the plane was hit by a Turkish
warplane as it was traveling at an altitude of 6000 meters about
a kilometer from the Turkish border. It was hit by an air-to-air
missile launched by a Turkish F-16 jet. The crash site is four
kilometers from the border. The plane posed no threat to Turkish
national security, he stressed.
Putin said the plane was targeting terrorist
targets in the Latakia province of Syria, many of whom came from
Russia.
Russia has for a long time been aware of oil going
from Syria under the control of terrorists to Turkey, Putin said.
The money finances terrorist groups.
“IS has big money, hundreds of millions or
even billions of dollars, from selling oil. In addition they are
protected by the military of an entire nation. One can understand
why they are acting so boldly and blatantly. Why they kill people in
such atrocious ways. Why they commit terrorist acts across the
world, including in the heart of Europe,” the Russian leader
said.
The downing of the Russian warplane happened
despite Russia signing an agreement with the US to prevent such
incidents in Syria, Putin stressed. Turkey claims to be part of the
US-led coalition fighting against IS in Syria, he added.
The incident will have grave consequences for
Russia’s relations with Turkey, Putin warned.
“We have always treated Turkey as not only a
close neighbor, but also as a friendly nation,” he said. “I
don’t know who has an interest in what happened today, but we
certainly don’t.”
The fact that Turkey did not try to contact Russia
in the wake of the incident and rushed to call a NATO meeting
instead is worrisome, Putin said. It appears that Turkey want NATO
to serve the interests of IS, he added.
Putin said Russia respects the regional interests
of other nations, but warned the atrocity committed by Turkey would
not go without an answer.
Putin was speaking at a meeting with King of
Jordan Abdullah II in Sochi, who expressed his condolences to the
Russian leader over the loss of a Russian pilot in Tuesday’s
incident, as well as the deaths of Russians in the Islamic State
bombing of a passenger plane in Egypt.
The two leaders discussed the anti-terrorist
effort in Syria and Iraq and the diplomatic effort to find a
political solution to the Syrian conflict.
Earlier a Russian Su-24 bomber was shot down by
Turkish fighter jets near the Turkish-Syrian border. Turkey claimed
that the plane violated Turkish airspace and did not respond to
warnings. Ankara said it was rightfully acting to defend its
sovereignty.
Russia insists that the plane stayed in the Syrian
airspace.
One of the two pilots of the downed Russian
warplane was reported killed by a rebel group as he was parachuting
down on the ground after ejecting from the plane. The fate of the
second pilot remains unknown.
Video allegedly shows dead Russian
pilot surrounded by armed rebels in Syria (GRAPHIC)
The video posted online shows armed men around an
alleged Russian pilot who seems to be unconscious and immobile.
His face is bruised and bloodied. The men seem to be happy and
are praising Allah, with some regretting that they hadn’t burned
him on the spot.
"A Russian pilot,"
a voice is heard saying as a group of men gather around him.
"God is great," a voice says.
They spoke Arabic with Turkmen accent.
According to Reuters, the video was sent by a
rebel group operating in the northwestern area of Syria, where
groups including the Free Syrian Army are active but Islamic
State has no known presence.
Jahed Ahmad, a representative of the 10th
Brigade in the Coast, the rebel group that attacked the pilots,
claimed to AP that one of the Russian pilots was dead upon
landing.
Both pilots came under fire from members of
the group after they attempted to land with their parachutes,
Ahmad said. He added that the shots killed one of the pilots,
but the fate of the other pilot is still unknown.
From the way the people in the video look and
are behaving, we “can assume that they are from the group” that
follow the ideology of Islamic State militants or Jabhat al-Nusra,
Ali Rizk, journalist and Middle East expert told RT.
Rebels: We Shot and Killed Russian Pilots
Turkmen rebels are claiming they shot and killed two Russian pilots
who ejected from a jet shot down by the Turkish air force over the
Syrian border. "Both of the pilots were retrieved dead. Our comrades
opened fire into the air and they died in the air," a deputy Turkmen
brigade commander, Alpaslan Celik, told Reuters. Videos online
purport to show rebels gathered around the body of one of the
pilots, yelling “allahu akbar!”
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