Warned 10 times in 5 minutes before they attacked. Russia claiming it just 'crashed' according to CNN tv coverage:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...der-with-syria

Turkey downs Russian warplane near Syria border

Kareem Shaheen in Beirut and Shaun Walker in Moscow
<time itemprop="datePublished" datetime="2015-11-24T04:21:50-0500" data-timestamp="1448356910000" class="content__dateline-wpd js-wpd content__dateline-wpd--modified tone-colour" style="color: rgb(0, 86, 137); cursor: pointer; display: inline-block;">Tuesday 24 November 2015 04.21 EST</time>

Nato-member Turkey has shot down a Russian warplane in the first time the alliance and Moscow have come to blows directly over the crisis in Syria.

Ankara and Moscow gave conflicting accounts of the incident, which appears to have occurred in an area near the Turkish-Syrian border straddling Iskenderun and Latakia.


The Turkish military said it scrambled two F-16 fighter jets after a plane penetrated Turkish airspace in the province of Hatay at 9.20am on Tuesday morning, warning it to leave 10 times in five minutes before it was shot down.


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Follow live updates after a Russian jet was downed near Turkey’s border with Syria
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</aside>It was unclear if the plane was shot down by the fighter jets or by ground-based defence systems.


Russia’s defence ministry, in a series of tweets, confirmed a Russian SU-24 had been shot down, but insisted the plane had never left Syrian airspace.


“At all times, the SU-24 was exclusively over the territory of Syria,” the defence ministry said. “The SU-24 was at 6000 metres and preliminary information suggests it was brought down by fire from the ground. The circumstances are being investigated.”


The ministry said preliminary information suggested that the pilots managed to successfully eject from the plane. The Turkish network CNN Turk said that one of the pilots had been captured by local Turkmen tribesmen in the area.


The area near where the plane was shot down is the site of ongoing clashes between forces loyal to the embattled Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, and rebels fighting to overthrow him. Russia launched a military intervention in October aimed at protecting the areas in western Syria still under control by the regime after nearly five years of civil war. The northern Latakia countryside has seen repeated aerial assaults by both the Russian and Syrian air forces.

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