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Subscribe to RSSUpdated at 5:30 p.m. Friday ET: The office of Turkey's prime minister said early Saturday that Syria downed a Turkish F-4 air force jet over the Mediterranean. The Syrian military, in a statement circulated on state media, said the plane was flying over its waters.
Turkey will take all necessary measures “decisively” once all the details of the incident emerge, said the office of Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan after a two-hour security meeting. It did not specify what the steps would be.
Search and rescue operations forthe warplane's missing airmen were continuing, Erdogan's office said.
Syria's military said, "Our air defenses confronted a target that penetrated our air space over our territorial waters pre-afternoon on Friday and shot it down. It turned out to be a Turkish military plane."
Of Friday, Erdogan told reporters at a news conference covered by NBC News he could not say whether the plane had crashed or been shot down.
"The chief of general staff has made the necessary statement about the missing plane. I am not saying it was brought down at the point it fell. It is not possible to say this without knowing the exact facts," Erdogan said.
He said he wasn't aware of any Syrian claims of responsibility for bringing down the plane or of earlier reports that Syrian authorities had apologized.
Earlier, Lebanon's Hezbollah-owned Al-Manar television station said that Syrian air defenses shot down a Turkish military aircraft, quoting Syrian security sources.
"Syrian security sources confirmed to a Manar correspondent in Damascus that Syrian defense forces shot down the Turkish fighter jet," a news flash on the Beirut-based station said.
Pro-Iranian Al-Mayadeen television station, which is based in Lebanon, also quoted what it said were Turkish sources as saying a jet had been shot down by Syrian air defenses.
Turkey -- a member of NATO -- said it had lost contact with a plane while it was over the sea off the southeastern coast, and a television station said it had crashed in Syrian territorial waters.
In a statement, Turkey's military said it lost radar and radio contact with the plane after it took off from Erhac Airport in the eastern province of Malatya.
Two crew were aboard the F-4 at the time of the crash, the Turkish state news agency Anatolia said on its website, citing Malatya governor Ulvi Saran.
Turkish warplanes regularly patrol along and off Turkey's southern Mediterranean coast.
Turkey has joined nations such as the U.S. in saying that Syrian President Bashar Assad should step down because of the uprising in his country. Turkey also has set up refugee camps on its border for more than 32,000 Syrians who have fled the fighting.
This article includes reporting by Reuters and The Associated Press.
Reports are surfacing that Syria may have shot down a Turkish fighter jet over Syrian waters in the Mediterranean Sea. NBC's Richard Engel reports.
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Here we go again boys and girls, the United States and NATO now have the excuse they have been longing for to start another war in the middle east. This set up plotted by the US and NATO as an excuse to attack Syria will take the place of any United Nations resolution which they could not get out of the Security Council.
Remember, Turkey is a member of NATO a close ally with the United States and is harboring and arming the terrorists committing atrocities in Syria.
This military imperialist adventure can and will expand rapidly throughout the Middle East and may draw in both Russia and China which will be a disaster for the United States and NATO, who are broke and war weary. What a gigantic mistake this will be for the citizens of America and Europe by thier elitist governments, who can care less for their people.
We'll now see the truth of the face of the Ottomans. When the Mavi Marmara was intercepted by the Israeli's at sea after fair warning, the Turkish Government became belligerent to an extreme.
Now, the butchering Syrian army have knocked down a Turkish war plane that got too close.
No warning.
The Syrians know that the opposition has no aircraft. You don't 'accidentally' drop a jet.
What will the Turks do? What will Erdogan do?
We will see...
It was no accident! NATO was testing the Syrian air defense systems by crossing into Syrian air space, in preparation for an air campaign. Syria just wanted to remind NATO that they are no Libya.
Turks should roll into tel aviv and tweak nittyahoo's nose for murdering 9 Turks during the floatilla raid.
You must have missed it, but there was a minor development called stealth since the F-4 was built.
ECM is different, but yeah, that's improved since then, too.
If true that Syria shot down a Turkey Military plane over open waters this could be very bad. Turkey is one of the NATO countrys and if I understand an attack on one NATO country is like an attack on all.
What the hell is going on? Is this like the Gulf of Tonkin all over again ? What was it a bait plane ? Man I am getting so sick and tired thinking about the possibility of War, War, War. NATO wants to get at IRAN so bad they can taste the blood in their mouth. Theres to much military presence in that region already.
Well since Syria pulled the trigger already theres now there is possibility for a counter measure and an escalation to start. I don't see Iran sitting ideally around if it does. Iran might start taking shots at NATO military targets and most likely attack Israel. Then ALL HELL BREAKS loose. Neither Syria or Iran will win but the Russians and Chinese may not sit this one out either. If this turns into a full scale war over this I only hope NATO hits them hard and fast with all the special stuff they have and have just been waiting to use over there. I suspect after they bloody up Syria and take out it's military and government the next step will be to take on Irans military and government. The first main targets in Iran will be anything to do with it's nuclear program.
Then we have the other joker. NORTH KOREA. The military exercises going on in South Korea along with Nato and them using the North Korean flag for target pratice doesn't help. There is much tension on that end too. The North Koreans might get trigger happy and the NEW LEADER might just be nuts enough to try out one of his Nuclear toys on South Korea. If that happens I don't see how China and Russia will sit by. Most any country probably can take one hit from a nuclear device and survive but if there ever is more than one LOOK OUT WORLD.
We won't have to worry about the upcoming elections here this November.
This is the 21st. Century. We live in a Thermo Nuclear Age. Thermo Nuclear Weapons can destroy NATIONS.
Thats not likely. First,Iran knows,if it actually starts a fight with the US,it WILL lose.It might be a bloody mess. Eventually the US might have to pull out without being able to build a stable government there. Eventially some other crazy dicator might come to power,however that wont mean much more to the Iranian government than it will to Sadam Hussein if Iraq falls back under the sway of some dictator,as like Hussein and his compatriots,they will have been long dead at the gallows by the time the new dictator rises to power. In other words,even if the US eventually cant "win" in a war in Iran,the Iranian regime is CERTAIN to lose.
As for the Russians,there will be no open war between Russia and the US. They are not that stupid.It will be done by proxy.Thats why we are not dealing with Syria directly. It would take a lot for that to happen,and NATO charter or not,its not likely we will fire directly on Russian ships nor they at us.
Now onto north Korea. The South has a state of the art military. The North may have an army 5 times their size,but the south will inflict 10x the casualties or more on them. They have cluster bombs and state of the art tanks and top of the line ships provided by the US. They north may have the worlds largest airforce of aging 1950s MIGs,but the south buys state of the art aircraft and antiaircraft defenses. The north might as well throw rocks. Within a day or two of an outbreak of hostilities,joint operations between the US and south korea will have destroyed their entire surface navy. Within a week ever last north korean submarine will have been hunted down and destroyed by US nulcear powered attack subs. The North Korean nuclear bomb is not weaponized.Even if they COULD mount it to a missile,theres a good chance they would be detected preparing it for launch or that it would be shot down (we can do that now). Even if it launched,which is not certain,and even if it hit,which again is not certain becuase their rockets are pretty rough,and then assuming it went off,it would not actually be advantageous to them. It would be the LAST thing that left their airspace. It would be made certain that everything that even looked like a launch facilty would be flattened. I dont think we would respond with nuclear weapons as we would not want to make things even worse for the south (they are going to get the fallout from nuclear weapons used against the north). It really would not matter. We would flatten the country with convetional weapons. Within a few weeks,the war would be over. The North Koreans still consider themselves "korean" and many have relatives in the south. Once it was over and it became common knowledge what really happened,they North would simply set about reunification ,which is honestly what most Koreans want on both sides. (Well,the south not so much but only because it willtrash their economy for a decade)
The 21st century is the "American Military Age". No nation on earth can stand up to us. THe only possible thing that could stand up to our miltiary MIGHT be the collective militaries of the European powers. They at least have a reasonable level of technology and the overall size and economies to sustain such an effort. Of course they are not going to get in a war like that and we have not desire or reason to start one with our allies. As such,any war,is going to be between the US AND those allies on one side,and some other poor bastards.
Remeber,there have been a lot of updates to those old f4 jets. The US used them in the first Gulf War even and I bet there are still avoionics and engine upgrades made for them as they are very common. The F4 was as hell of a plane and in fact,Turkeys a NATO nation which means their pilots conduct joint training with the US,so you can bet they have competant pilots.
If you think about it,its unusual that they would shoot down an aircraft randomly without identifying it. There is just way to much risk of shooting down a jetliner or something. Imagine the response if you shot down a Isreali Air jet carrying 200 Isreali citizens and a dozen or so europeans and Americans and maybe even a couple of Russians. Most dictators understand that if your on thin ice already,you DONT want to do that. Ill all but guarentee they knew EXACTLY what that plane was becuase someone had eyes on it before they shot it down.
If that jet was in Syrias air space,then yea,it sucks,but I guess they were within their rights,especially considering that Turkey is allowing weapons across their border to supply Syrian rebels. If however it was NOT in Syrian air space,then Turkey has a right to be very angry. We may be involved in another war,and Im sure people will whine its somehow Obamas fault. If however Turkey can show this was an attack against them and invokes the NATO charter,then we probably have little choice. I would expect that it would be similar to Libya,where we use our stealth aircraft to take out Syrian air defenses and key targets and then let the Turks deal with it.
If something military would appear over my aquatory - especially military, making spy around ... I WOULD shot THAT DAMN CRAP DOWN no excuses, no notifications too !!!
Russian.
syria's air defense is 5 times as modern than the lybians was.only supersonic plane flying at high altitude may be able to avoid being shot down.
Obviously you folks need to do some reading...Turkey has the second largest army in Nato after U.S and is a very capable nation.But as a turk I don't want us to get involved in this war which will benefit Israel and U.S if nothing else.I don't want my fellow brothers to die for imperial interests..No f.... way.
Atarax. how did this suddenly become Israel's fault? Why do Turks reflexively blame everything they can on Israel, and if it it includes blame for the U.S., all the better?
I don't see where I blamed Israel for this incident.I just stated the obvious fact that if we invade syria Israel will benefit the most along with U.S and Saudia Arabia...What do we get in return ? Body bags and billions of dollars spent over nothing..
@ atarax, get some newer jets then, instead of using 60 year old F4, retire those. Sorry no one believes having a huge stockpile of worthless junk you call military is going to do anything for you.
If I were Turkey I would leave Syria and IRAN alone, because they will stomp Turkey into the ground.
Another thing, as I predicted impotent Turkey and NATO will do nothing more then condemn this act, and say they don't want another WAR. However, they know they can't even start one legitimately without outside help, so there will be no war period, just tail behind the legs from Turkey.
Turkey does not have a single Jet that could get pass S300 Russian SAM, anti-stealth systems, not to mention the ground based mobile anti-ANYTHING systems Russia supplied them.
As heard throughout several Trailer Parks in rural Mississippi:
"Hey Wilma, looks like them A-Rabs be shooten Turkeys, what tha big deal. Kooder and I done shotted 4 Turkeys last week over near Shady Lake"