Turkey said it intercepted a Russian jet that violated its air space over the weekend.
The country called in the Russian ambassador and lodged a strong condemnation of the violation, Turkey’s foreign ministry said in a statement Monday.
“The Russian Federation will be responsible for any undesired incident that may occur,” the ministry warned.
The incident occurred Saturday in the Yayladagi region of Turkey’s southern Hatay province.
“The Russian aircraft exited Turkish airspace into Syria after it was intercepted by two F-16s from the Turkish Air Force, which were conducting patrols in the region.”
Turkey and Russia are at odds regarding the bloody civil war raging in Syria.
Ankara’s position is that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has to go for the conflict to end. Moscow backs the Syrian leader and has begun airstrikes that it says are against ISIS militants.
Air strikes continue
Moscow announced over the weekend that it was intensifying the airstrikes, which started September 30.
Over the last 24 hours, Russian Su-34, Su-24M and Su-25 planes hit nine ISIS targets in Syria, Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement Monday.
It said the air force had used “pinpoint strikes” against ISIS facilities in Hama, Homs, Idlib and Latakia provinces.
Targets destroyed included an ISIS command center, communications center, training camp and ammunition depots as well as artillery weapons and vehicles, the ministry said.
Syria backing Russian strikes
On Sunday, Syrian Foreign Minister Omran al-Zoubi said the Russia’s strikes had been effective against the militants in comparison to those of the U.S-backed coalition, state news agency SANA reported.
“Minister al-Zoubi said the U.S-led coalition is not serious and all of its raids on ISIS brought no tangible results because the real purpose was not destroying ISIS but on the contrary preserving it for as long as possible with the aim of achieving certain goals,” the agency said.
It follows an interview by Al-Assad to Iranian television station Khabar TV, in which he was optimistic that a coalition of Iran, Russia, Iraq and Syria would achieve real results on the ground, according to a transcript carried by SANA Sunday.
“It must succeed; otherwise the whole region, not only one or two countries, will be destroyed,” al-Assad said.