Reuters news agency quoted a US official, unnamed as saying that the United States believes that the Russian plane was hit in Syrian airspace, shortly after entering the Turkish airspace.
The US official said this assessment is based on the thermal print of the control plane.
US President , Barack Obama assured his Turkish counterpart , Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a telephone interview that the United States supports Turkey’s right to defend its sovereignty.
The White House said the two presidents agreed on the importance of not to escalate the situation.
Turkey says that the Russian plane entered its territory, while President Putin insists that the aircraft, a Sukhoi 24, was shot down by air-to-air missiles while flying over Syrian airspace.
The Secretary of NATO said that the coalition is in solidarity with Turkey after the Kremlin threatened of “serious consequences.”
The statement of the Secretary-General of NATO , Jens Stoltenberg came after an emergency meeting of the coalition.
Stoltenberg said, “We stand in solidarity with Turkey and support the sovereignty of the state ally of NATO on its territory.”
He also called on Turkey and Russia not to escalate the situation.
While President , Putin described dropping the aircraft as a “stab in the back.”
Turkey in this incident is considered of the first countries in the NATO-to drop a Russian aircraft since the fall of more than half a century.
On the other hand, a member of the Russian Marine was killed during a mission by helicopter to rescue the Russian plane that was shot down by Turkey near the Syrian border crew.
The soldier was killed after his plane came under fire by rebels north of Syria, where the plane crashed.
shafaaq.com
