Russia 'stabbed in back'

Turkey shot down a Russian warplane near the Syrian border yesterday, saying the pilot had repeatedly violated its air space.

This is one of the most serious publicly acknowledged clashes between a Nato country and Russia in half a century.

A Russian helicopter was blown up by Syrian rebels after it made an emergency landing in government-held territory after being damaged by rebel fire, but its crew escaped, a Syrian monitor said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the plane had been attacked when it was 1km inside Syria and warned of "serious consequences" for what he termed a "stab in the back''.

"We will never tolerate such crimes like the one committed today," Putin said as Russian and Turkish shares fell on fears of a worsening of relations between the Cold War enemies.

Each country summoned a diplomatic representative of the other and Nato called a meeting of its ambassadors for yesterday afternoon. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov cancelled a visit to Turkey that had been due today.

Footage from private Turkish broadcaster Haberturk TV showed the warplane going down in flames in a woodland area, a long plume of smoke trailing behind it. The plane went down in an area known by Turks as "Turkmen Mountain", it said.

Separate footage from Turkey's Anadolu Agency showed two men parachuting out of the jet before it crashed.

A deputy commander of rebel Turkmen forces in Syria said his men shot both dead as they came down.

Ankara has traditionally expressed solidarity with Syrian Turkmens, who are Syrians of Turkish descent. Turkmens frequently fight alongside Kurdish forces against the Syrian army.

Russia's Defence Ministry said one of its Su-24 fighter jets had been downed in Syria and that, according to preliminary information, the crew had ejected.

"For the entire duration of the flight, the aircraft was exclusively over Syrian territory," it said.

The Turkish military said the aircraft had been warned 10 times in the space of five minutes about violating Turkish air space. Officials said a second plane had also approached the border and been warned.

Don't panic: This won't start WW3

The shooting down of a Russian fighter jet by Turkey - which said it was violating its airspace, despite 10 warnings - was a very dangerous moment in Syria's four-year civil war. But in the context of warming diplomatic relations with Moscow, and the extraordinary risk of escalation, Turkey's Western allies are likely to proceed with extreme caution.

With Russian, Syrian, US, French, British, Canadian and Arab nation aircraft filling Syria's crowded skies, Russian aircraft coming within 140m of US planes, and Russia repeating some of its border-probing behaviour, a crisis was almost inevitable.

However, this is the first time since the end of the Cold War that a Nato member has shot down a Russian warplane.

©The Daily Telegraph