Turkey shoots down two Syria warplanes in escalating offensive

ANKARA: Turkey shot down two Syrian warplanes on Sunday in an escalating offensive against the Damascus regime as Ankara pressured Europe over the conflict by opening its border for migrants to cross into the continent.

Following weeks of violence in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib, Turkey confirmed a full military operation against Russian-backed Syrian forces after dozens of Turkish soldiers were killed last week in an air strike blamed on Damascus.

Tensions have intensified between Russia and Turkey but Ankara has insisted it does not want to clash directly with Moscow.

“One anti-aircraft system that shot down one of our armed drones and two other anti-aircraft systems have been destroyed, and two SU-24 regime planes that were attacking our aircraft have been downed,” Turkey’s defence ministry said in a statement.

Syrian state media said Turkish forces “targeted” two of its planes over Idlib. Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, both said the planes had been downed.

Migrant numbers have already surged along the rugged frontier after Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, seeking to pressure the EU over Syria, said the country had “opened the doors” to Europe.

Turkish forces hit Syrian regime positions after Erdogan warned Damascus would “pay a price” for the air strike.

SANA Syrian state media reported the regime shot down a Turkish drone near the town of Saraqeb, publishing footage of an aircraft tumbling from the sky in flames. Those images could not be immediately confirmed.

But Turkish defence ministry confirmed one of its drones was shot down.