Turkey scrambled fighter planes to force a Syrian passenger jet to land and seized what it suspected was military equipment being ferried from Russia to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s forces. The interception of the Syrian Air plane came hours after Turkey’s chief of staff warned that his troops would respond with greater force if shells from Syria continued to hit Turkish territory.
Military jets escorted the Damascus-bound Airbus A-320, which was carrying about 30 passengers from Moscow, into Ankara airport late yesterday after Turkey received intelligence that it was carrying military supplies.
The plane and its passengers were allowed to continue after parts of the cargo were seized. Officials gave no details of what was confiscated, saying investigations were underway, but some Turkish newspapers said the cargo included non-lethal supplies such as radio equipment.
“We are determined to control weapons transfers to a regime that carries out such brutal massacres against civilians. It is unacceptable that such a transfer is made using our airspace,” foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu said.
“Today we received information this plane was carrying cargo of a nature that could not possibly be in compliance with the rules of civil aviation,” he said in Athens during an official visit, in comments broadcast live on Turkish television.
Mr Davutoglu said Turkey was within its rights to investigate planes suspected of carrying military materials but declined to say what was in the cargo. Turkey would continue to investigate Syrian civilian aircraft using its airspace, he said.
Turkish authorities have also instructed Turkish passenger planes not to fly in Syrian airspace, saying it was no longer safe. A witness at the border saw at least one passenger plane turn around as it approached Syria yesterday and head back into Turkey.
There was no immediate reaction from Moscow, which has stood behind Dr Assad’s government during an 18-month-old uprising that has killed some 30,000 people.
Rebels are outgunned by the government but can still strike at will, and Dr Assad has assumed personal command of his forces, convinced he can prevail militarily.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 70 people had been killed across Syria yesterday, including six rebels in the strategic town of Maarat al-Nuaman, on the north-south highway linking Aleppo to the capital Damascus.
Meanwhile, the conflict threatens to spill over Syria’s borders and ignite a wider Middle Eastern war, drawing in neighbouring states and pitting Sunni Muslim states against Syria’s rulers and their allies including Shia Iran.
Turkey’s armed forces have bolstered their presence along the 900km border and have been firing back over the past week in response to gunfire and shelling coming across from northern Syria, where Dr Assad’s forces have been battling rebels who control swathes of territory.