The Foreign Ministry of Armenia has expressed condolences over the downing of a Russian plane over Syria on Tuesday, September 18.

"We deeply condole with the colleagues, family and friends of 15 Russian servicemen who died as a result of the tragedy on board an Il-20 plane in the Syrian sky," the Ministry said in a tweet.

Russia’s Ministry of Defence said on Tuesday that the Syrian military had accidentally shot down a Russian military plane over Syria, but said it blamed the incident on Israel, the RIA news agency reported, according to Reuters.

The ministry had previously said that the plane had vanished from radar screens over Syria at the same time as Israeli and French forces were launching strikes on targets in Syria.