Back to top.
In new provocation, Turkish jets hijack Syrian airliner

Turkey forced down a Syrian Airlines passenger aircraft on Wednesday on suspicion of transporting weapons from Russia to the Assad regime and said it had seized illicit cargo, as the already tense confrontation between Ankara and Damascus became still more grave.

The news that scrambled Turkish F-16 fighter jets had made the aircraft break its journey from Moscow to Damascus and land at Ankara airport came as Turkey threatened to step up its retaliation to a barrage of cross border shelling by Syria.

Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkish foreign minister, told Turkish state television that the aircraft, which was carrying about 30 passengers, was forced to land because of information that it may have carried “certain equipment in breach of civil aviation rules”. He added that Turkey was determined to stop “weapons transfers to a regime that brutally massacres civilians”.

A person knowledgeable about the search told the FT that equipment that could be considered arm parts had been discovered and seized, and that the aircraft would soon leave with its passengers.

http://tmblr.co/ZEU8UyV5VCrn
  1. dqwes reblogged this from fuckyeahmarxismleninism
  2. fuckyeahmarxismleninism posted this