Turkey, Syria tensions rise with Ankara scrambling jets

Further underlining the mistrust between the two neighbours :

TURKEY: Tensions between Turkey and Syria rose Sunday, as Ankara scrambled fighter jets after Syrian helicopters flew close to the border, underlining the mistrust between the neighbours after the downing of a Turkish plane last month.

The fresh hostility came as Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan insisted that a jet fighter shot down by Syria last month was in international airspace, dismissing a US newspaper report that it was downed inside Syria as untrue.

Erdogan waded into the row at a meeting of his AKP party, saying that the Wall Street Journal had “unfortunately published a story which is not true”.

The comments follow a report Saturday in the newspaper citing US intelligence that claimed the plane was “most likely hit by shore-based anti-aircraft guns while it was inside Syrian airspace”. Turkey has repeatedly said its F-4 Phantom warplane was downed without warning in international airspace on June 22, although it admitted that it had violated Syria’s airspace for a short time and “by mistake”.

The Turkish military gave further details in a statement Sunday, saying the plane had been inside Syrian airspace “for about five minutes”.

“We see no indication that it was shot down by a surface-to-air missile” as Turkey says, an unnamed senior US defence official was quoted as telling the newspaper.

AFP