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6 October, 2015 00:00 00 AM
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Turkey warns Russia over air space violations

Russian says it struck nine IS targets in Syria over past 24 hours
AFP, BEIRUT

AFP, BEIRUT: Turkey warned Russia on Monday against violations of its airspace by warplanes straying over the border from Syria, as NATO called an emergency meeting over the “unacceptable” intrusion.
Ankara, a NATO member, protested to Moscow after its F-16 jets intercepted a Russian fighter plane that violated its air space near the Syrian border over the weekend, forcing it to turn back.
Two Turkish jets were also harassed by an unidentified MIG-29 on the Syrian border, Turkey’s army said.
“Our rules of engagement are clear whoever violates our air space,” Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told Haber-Turk television.
“The Turkish Armed Forces are clearly instructed. Even if it is a flying bird, it will be intercepted,” he added, but played down the idea of “a Turkey-Russia crisis”.
“Our channels with Russia remain open,” he said, hoping that Moscow would give up on “wrong attitudes”.
Foreign Minister Feridun Sinirlioglu contacted his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, warning him not to repeat similar incidents.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg, meeting with Sinirlioglu in Brussels, criticised the “unacceptable violations of Turkish airspace by Russian combat aircraft”.
“I call on Russia to fully respect NATO airspace and avoid escalating tensions with the alliance,” Stoltenberg said.
Stoltenberg said ambassadors from NATO’s 28 member states would meet in the North Atlantic Council later Monday to discuss the situation.
Turkey and Russia remain on opposing sides of the Syrian conflict, with Moscow one of the few allies of President Bashar al-Assad while Ankara backs a solution excluding the embattled leader.
Russian warplanes have been flying over Syrian territory since Wednesday, conducting air strikes on what Moscow says are IS group targets in the country’s northern and central provinces.
The strikes have been criticised by opposition backers like the United States, which leads a coalition already carrying out raids against IS in Syria.
A US official said Monday the Russian air space violation was probably deliberate.
“I don’t believe that this was an accident,” he said.
On Monday, Russia’s defence ministry said its war planes had carried out strikes on nine IS targets including command centres and communications posts in three provinces in the past 24 hours.
The West has accused Moscow of mainly targeting moderate opponents of the regime.
Meanwhile, US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter said Monday that Russia is pursuing a “losing strategy” in Syria and that it must live up to its commitments in Ukraine.
Speaking in Madrid at the start of a five-day trip to Europe, Carter told Spanish military officials that by carrying out bombing in Syria, Russia had only worsened the four-year conflict.
Russia last week started air strikes in Syria, claiming it was hitting Islamic State jihadists. But the Pentagon says Russian jets have targeted other rebel groups in order to support the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

 

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Published by the Editor on behalf of Independent Publications Limited at Media Printers, 446/H, Tejgaon I/A, Dhaka-1215.
Editorial, News & Commercial Offices : Beximco Media Complex, 149-150 Tejgaon I/A, Dhaka-1208, Bangladesh. GPO Box No. 934, Dhaka-1000.

Editor : M. Shamsur Rahman
Published by the Editor on behalf of Independent Publications Limited at Media Printers, 446/H, Tejgaon I/A, Dhaka-1215.
Editorial, News & Commercial Offices : Beximco Media Complex, 149-150 Tejgaon I/A, Dhaka-1208, Bangladesh. GPO Box No. 934, Dhaka-1000.

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