The latest on the Russian warplane shot down by Turkey on Tuesday. All times local:
8:50 p.m.
Russia's military general staff says that one of the pilots of the Su-24 warplane that was shot down by Turkey was killed by groundfire as he parachuted from his crippled plane.
Russian news agencies reported the statement Tuesday by general staff spokesman Lt. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi, who also said that rebels in Syria fired on a Russian helicopter that was searching for the two pilots of the Su-24.
He said that shooting killed one crew member on the Mi-8 helicopter and forced it to land in neutral territory. The rest of the crew was evacuated.
Rudskoi also said that Russian radar data showed that Turkish warplanes had violated Syrian airspace in the course of shooting down the Russian plane.
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8:35 p.m.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is urging all parties to take urgent measures to de-escalate tensions following Turkey's downing of a Russian fighter jet.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the secretary-general believes Tuesday's "worrying developments" underscore the importance of international unity and cooperation against violent extremists in the region as well as the urgent need to find a solution to the Syrian conflict.
Dujarric said the U.N. chief hopes that "a credible and thorough review of the incident will clarify the events and help to prevent future recurrences."
Ban reiterated his appeal to all those involved in military action in Syria, especially the air campaigns, "to maximize operational measures" to protect civilians and avoid civilian casualties.
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8:30 p.m.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Turkish F-16s shot down the Russian plane in line with Turkey's rules of engagement and insists Turkey does not harbor "enmity" toward Russia or any other nation.
Erdogan said Tuesday that Turkish level-headedness had prevented even graver incidents at the border.
The Turkish leader criticized Russian actions in the Turkmen regions, saying there were no Islamic State group fighters in the area.
He said Turkey would continue to support the Turkmen community in Syria.
Erdogan was speaking at a function at his palace after chairing a security meeting to discuss the downing of the plane.
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8:25 p.m.
Turkey says that two planes violated Turkish airspace before it shot down one of them, which crashed in Syrian territory.
In a letter to the U.N. Security Council and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, it said the jet it shot down disregarded 10 warnings to change course.
The letter from Turkey's U.N. Ambassador Halit Cevik said "two SU-24 planes, the nationality of which are unknown," approached Turkish airspace in the Yayladagi-Hatay region.
The letter, obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press, said both planes, at an altitude of 19,000 feet, disregarded warnings and violated Turkish airspace "to a depth of 1.36 miles and 1.15 miles in length for 17 seconds" just after 9:24 a.m.
"Following the violation, plane one left Turkish national airspace," the letter said. "Plane two was fired at while in Turkish national airspace by Turkish F-16s performing air combat patrolling in that area in accordance with the rules of engagement."
It said the second plane crashed on the Syrian side of the border.
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8:20 p.m.
Russia's military says that a helicopter that was searching for the crew of a shot-down warplane in Syria was shot down by rebel fire and one serviceman was killed.
A spokesman for the general staff, Lt. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi, was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying Tuesday that the Mi-8 chopper was one of two taking part in the search operation. The rest of its crew were evacuated and taken back to the air base used by Russia in Syria.
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8:10 p.m.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says has called on all parties to be prudent and to contribute to reducing tensions after Turkey downed a Russian jet it says violated its airspace.
Stoltenberg says the situation is serious, but that he hopes for renewed contacts between Turkey and Russia.
He said the assessments of other NATO members supported the Turkish version of events.
Stoltenberg spoke after an extraordinary meeting of NATO's decision-making North Atlantic Council, called at Turkey's request so Turkey could inform its allies about its downing of a Russian warplane earlier in day.
NATO deputy spokeswoman Carmen Romero added that "NATO is monitoring the situation closely" and are in close contact with Turkish authorities.
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7:55 p.m.
A U.S. defense official in Washington and a NATO diplomat say the Russian plane entered Turkish airspace before Turkey shot it down.
The U.S. official said the Russian plane flew across a 2-mile section of Turkish airspace, meaning it was in Turkish airspace only for a matter of seconds. The official said it was in the sliver of Turkish territory that juts down near the juncture of Idlib and Latakia provinces.
The NATO diplomat said the Turks have reported two separate violations of their airspace, including one that lasted 17 seconds.
The diplomat said the Turks had played the warning messages they sent to the Russians in a closed-door meeting of NATO's North Atlantic Council and that they sent 21 warnings in five minutes.
The diplomat said authorities in Ankara had one-on-one contacts with the Russians to stress how seriously they took the matter after previous Russian intrusions into Turkish skies last month, and that "clearly the Russians had been disrespecting the rules of the game and sovereign air territory."
Both the U.S. official and the NATO diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss details about the case.
-By Robert Burns in Washington and John-Thor Dahlburg in Brussels.
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7:20 p.m.
Russia's Defense Ministry has summoned Turkey's military attache in Moscow for an official protest.
The ministry says the attache was presented with a statement calling the downing of a Russian warplane an "unfriendly action" and reiterating Russian officials' contention that the downed plane had not violated Turkish airspace.
The ministry also complained that attempts to organize emergency cooperation with Turkey in the incident were unsuccessful.
The ministry is "developing measures to react to such incidents," the ministry statement said without elaborating.
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7:15 p.m.
A U.S. military spokesman says the U.S. heard communication between Turkish and Russian pilots before Turkey shot down the Russian plane.
Col. Steve Warren, spokesman for the U.S. military in Baghdad, told reporters at the Pentagon Tuesday that the U.S. military was "able to hear everything that was going on."
Asked whether he could confirm that Turkish pilots issued 10 verbal warnings to the Russian pilots and that the Russians did not respond, Warren said, "Yes." He did not elaborate.
Asked whether the U.S. could determine from radar images whether the Russian plane had entered Turkish airspace, Warren said the U.S. was still gathering information.
Warren said: "We need a little time to work all that out."
He said it was not immediately clear on which side of the border the Russian planes were flying.
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6:40 p.m.
A NATO official says the alliance has opened an extraordinary meeting on Turkey's downing of a Russian fighter jet.
The official, who was not authorized to make public statements and spoke on condition of anonymity, said NATO's decision-making North Atlantic Council convened at around 5:25 p.m. (1625 GMT) Tuesday, about a half-hour later than scheduled.
NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg was expected to make a statement following the meeting, which was called at Turkey's request.
Turkey says the Russian plane violated Turkish airspace and repeatedly ignored Turkish warnings to leave. Moscow says the plane was inside Syria when it was shot down.
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6:10 p.m.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has convened a security meeting following Turkey's downing of a Russian plane.
Erdogan is meeting with Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu as well as Turkey's military and intelligence chiefs on Tuesday.
Turkey says the Russian plane violated Turkish airspace and repeatedly ignored Turkish warnings to leave. Moscow says the plane was inside Syria when it was shot down.
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6:00 p.m.
Syrian rebels and activists say they have targeted and destroyed a Russian-made helicopter operated by the Syrian army near the area where a Russian warplane was downed by Turkey.
A rebel spokesman, Zakaria al-Ahmad, says the chopper was flying low over mountains in Latakia province, allegedly searching for the missing Russian pilots on Tuesday.
Al-Ahmad says the rebels fired a Tao missile that destroyed the helicopter after it landed and its pilots had left the aircraft.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the chopper made an emergency landing in the area and its pilots ejected before the aircraft was hit. It was not clear why it made an emergency landing.
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5:50 p.m.
Turkey's private Dogan news agency is quoting a Turkmen commander as saying Turkey brought down the Russian plane after it had dropped a bomb in a Turkmen region of Syria and entered Turkish airspace.
The fighter, who was identified as Alpaslan Celik, the second-in-command of the Turkmen Coastal Division, said the Turkmen forces had re-captured a Turkmen mountain region from Syrian forces.
Celik also said the rebels shot and killed both Russian pilots who parachuted from the plane after it was shot down.
The rebels had previously said they killed one of the two pilots and were searching for the second one. The AP couldn't immediately confirm the claim that both pilots were dead.
Dogan said Celik spoke to a group of Turkish journalists in the Turkmen region. A group of fighters could be seen in the background shouting "Allahu Akbar" and firing into the sky with machine guns as Celik made the announcement. CONTINUE READING
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