Turkey downs Russian warplane claiming airspace breach

Turkey shot down a Russian warplane Tuesday, prompting an angry response from Moscow and heightening tensions in the global struggle over the future of Syria and the fate of the Islamic State.

The Turkish military said two F-16s shot down the Russian Su-24 attack aircraft after it breached Turkey's airspace — and after Turkey issued 10 warnings in five minutes. Russia's defense ministry denied the plane ever strayed from Syria airspace.

Putin vows 'tragic consequences' for Turkey

The Russian jet appeared to enter Turkish airspace briefly, a U.S. Defense official who was not authorized to speak publicly about the incident told USA TODAY.

The Turkish F-16 warplane fired on the Russian aircraft quickly after several warnings over the course of about a minute were issued, the official said. However, the Turks have warned the Russians repeatedly not to violate their airspace, and had shot down a small Russian drone last month when it crossed the border, the official noted.

President Obama spoke on the telephone Tuesday with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and expressed the United States' and NATO's support for Turkey's right to defend its sovereignty, the White House said in a statement. They both agreed on the importance of deescalating the situation and working to prevent such situations in the future, according to the White House. They also expressed their shared commitment to destroy Islamic State, the White House said.

"As we have repeatedly made clear, we stand in solidarity with Turkey and support the territorial integrity of our NATO ally, Turkey," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said after an emergency meeting of the 28-nation defense pact.

The plane went down in the Bayirbucak region of northwestern Syria near the Turkish border. Turkey's Dogan news agency said witnesses reported seeing the plane crash over tents in a village.

The condition of the two parachuting pilots remained unclear. Alpaslan Celik, the second-in-command of a Turkmen rebel force, told multiple media outlets that rebels at the scene fatally shot the pilots. A Turkish official, however, told Reuters that his government believes the pilots are alive and that authorities were working to secure their release.

Putin vows 'tragic consequences' for Turkey

Turkmen are ethnic Turks who live in Syria near the border. They are among the rebel groups that have been fighting to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad, who is backed by Russia, since 2011. A U.S.-led coalition has been bombing Islamic State targets in the war-ravaged country but has accused Russia of targeting U.S.-backed rebels such as the Turkmen instead of the Islamic State, which is also known as ISIS or ISIL.

"This is part of what happens when you have another power carrying out airstrikes in a complex environment where a coalition is striking ISIL, and another power is striking moderate opposition forces," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said. "Turkey has a right to defend its territory, which includes its airspace."

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the Russian plane posed no threat to Turkey. He called the shoot down "a stab in Russia’s back delivered by terrorist accomplices" that wouldn't be tolerated. Russia's defense ministry said the plane "stayed within Syrian airspace. Objective monitoring data confirm this."

In a related incident, Syrian rebels claimed to have shot down a Russian helicopter searching for the plane's pilots, using U.S.-supplied TOW missiles, according to multiple media outlets citing the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Russian officials said one soldier was killed and the rest were evacuated, AP reported.

Syrian rebels say they downed a Russian rescue helicopter

Turkey summoned the Russian ambassador to discuss the incursion Tuesday. The ambassador was summoned twice in October after Russian fighter planes breached Turkish airspace. At the time, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Turkish pilots had been instructed to intercept any Russian aircraft that enters Turkey.

The ambassador, Andrei Karlov, was summoned again Friday to protest Russian bombing of Turkmen villages in northern Syria close to the Turkish border. The ambassador was told that ongoing attacks on the villages "could lead to serious consequences," the foreign ministry said.

U.S. warplanes and air crews have been helping the Turks protect their airspace from Russian incursion. To back the Turks earlier this month, the U.S. Air Force sent six F-15C fighters to Turkey, Warren said.

Obama: Islamic State must be destroyed

Last week, Russia launched extensive attacks on Islamic State targets in Raqqa, the extremist group's headquarters in Syria, after Russian investigators concluded a homemade bomb brought down a Russian passenger plane in Egypt last month, killing all 224 aboard. The Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, claimed responsibility.

The U.S. government previously said most Russian strikes targeted moderate rebels, including some backed by the U.S., and that the real purpose of Russia's air campaign, which began in September, was not to defeat the Islamic State but to prop up Assad.

Contributing: Jane Onyanga-Omara, Oren Dorell