ANKARA/BEIRUT (Reuters) – Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu phoned world powers yesterday to brief them about the downing of one of Ankara’s planes by Syria as a joint search for the airmen, who were shot down over the Mediterranean, tried to locate them.
Signals from both sides suggested neither wanted a military confrontation over Friday’s incident as the search focused its efforts near a Turkish province that hosts thousands of rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad.
Given the hostility between the two former allies over Assad’s 16-month-old crackdown on his opponents, the joint operation was likely to sit uneasily with both countries.
Iraq, which borders both, said the incident marked a serious escalation of the Syrian conflict, demonstrating its potential to affect other countries in the region.
