Turkey accuses Syria of downing plane in international airspace

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkey on Sunday, June 24 accused Syria of shooting down one of its warplanes in international airspace, as a watchdog said the Damascus regime suffered new setbacks and violence reached new heights, AFP reported.

"According to our conclusions, our plane was shot down in international airspace, 13 nautical miles from Syria," Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told TRT television.

Syria has said it downed the F-4 phantom jet on Friday after it violated its airspace, and on Saturday Turkey acknowledged the plane may have done so in comments seen as a bid to cool tensions between the former allies.

Meanwhile, at least 20 people were killed, including 16 troops, in clashes with rebel fighters in Syria on Sunday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

The clashes happened almost simultaneously at dawn," in the northern province of Aleppo bordering Turkey, the Observatory's Rami Abdel Rahman of told AFP.

The fighting took place in the town of Dara Aza, and at military checkpoints near the town of Al-Atarib and the village of Kafr Halab, the Britain-based watchdog said.

It reported that following an attack on an artillery battalion, a number of soldiers defected, taking with them a large quantity of weapons.

And, in another setback for the embattled regime of President Bashar al-Assad, rebels captured 11 government soldiers in the central province of Damascus, it added.

According to the Observatory's figures, 94 people were killed in Syria on Monday, 62 on Tuesday, 88 on Wednesday, 168 on Thursday, 116 on Friday and 116 on Saturday.