Turkey Shoots Down Syrian Fighter-Bomber

Turkish air force jets intercepted and destroyed a Syrian fighter-bomber Sunday along the two nations’ shared border, leading the Syrian government to claim that the plane was in Syrian airspace and the incident was “unwarranted aggression.”

Turkish Prime Minister Tiyyap Erdogan, who faces increasing hostility from voters over a series of scandals and the unpopular decision last week to block the popular Twitter social media service, used the incident to rally supporters at a campaign stop.

“A Syrian plane violated our airspace. Our F-16s took off and hit this plane,” he told a cheering crowd in northwest Turkey. “Why? Because if you violate my airspace, our slap after this will be hard.”

Read more