ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem said Wednesday that Turkey’s shooting down of a Russian fighter jet and the death of its pilot amounted a “war crime.”
"The killing of a Russian pilot by terrorist groups backed by Turkey is clearly a war crime," said Muallem during a press release with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.
"Turkey is supporting terrorist groups operating in Syria against the legitimate government of Damascus," he declared on a visit to Russia.
Muallem said Turkey was unhappy about the heavy air raids against the Islamic State, "therefore they transgressed Syria's land to shoot down Russian warplanes and killing the pilots."
In a joint Russian-Syrian operation, “the second pilot was rescued alive after ejecting from the aircraft," he added.
Tensions between Ankara and Moscow have been high since Turkey shot down a Russian jet on Tuesday, saying it had trespassed its airspace. Russia maintains the jet was in skies over Syria, where Russia has been conducting air raids since early October.
Both pilots had ejected, but one was killed by Syrian rebels.
Meanwhile, Lavrov denounced US-led coalition airstrikes for not being effective in weakening ISIS and other Islamist radical groups operating within Syria.
"In the course of 18 months, the US-led coalitions have carried out 6,000 airstrikes, but they were ineffective in weakening ISIS and even the group has been stronger since then," said Lavrov.
He added that Turkey's act of downing the Russian warplane was intentional.
"We have serious doubts that this act was unintentional. It looks very much like a preplanned provocation," he said.
Upon the request of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government, Russian warplanes have been conducting air raids over Syria since early October.
“Many Sunni Arab countries believe Moscow just hits Assad's rival parties, and these claims are untrue, Lavrov explained.
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