Turkey shoots down drone near Syria, U.S. suspects Russian origin

[MowCowWhoHow III]

Source: Reuters



ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish warplanes shot down an unidentified drone in Turkish air space near Syria on Friday and a U.S. official said Washington believed it was of Russian origin.

The Russian defense ministry said all of its planes in Syria had safely returned to base and that all its drones were operating "as planned".

The downing of the drone highlights the risks to NATO member Turkey as Syrian, Russian and U.S. coalition aircraft fly combat missions so close to its borders.

The Turkish military said its jets had shot down the aircraft after it continued on its trajectory despite three warnings, in line with its rules of engagement. Broadcaster NTV said it had come 3 km (1.9 miles) into Turkish air space.


Read more: http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCAKCN0SA15K20151016

---

Somewhat less alarming than the initial BBC report I saw below:

Turkey 'downs aircraft on Syria border'

Turkey says its warplanes have shot down an unidentified aircraft which intruded into airspace near Syrian border.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-34551155

[Demeter]

1. I hope it was the CIA

or a drone. Or the Black Ops crew.

Anything else would be tragic.


Edit:

I see by your update that my hopes are realized. Thanks for posting it!

[uhnope]

9. wait--what? Did you forget the sarcasm tag?

You're hoping that US troops were killed, because "anything else would be tragic"? Or what did you mean there, exactly?

[GGJohn]

11. Wait, wut?

You hope Americans are killed?
What kind of shit is this?

[Demeter]

13. Drones are unmanned robotic surveillance and bombing machines

Do try to keep up with us, dear.

[GGJohn]

14. Then you should probably clarify your post I replied to,

it reads like you want US Spec Ops or CIA personnel to be killed.

[sulphurdunn]

2. Things have been getting out of hand

for years. Now they are spinning out of control.

[uawchild]

4. Things are not that bad.

The constant media flogging of conflict, potential conflict and even severely unlikely conflict pushes our human nature's most vulnerable "hot buttons", they do it mostly to get ratings and make money. They might even be doing it to influence politics and cause increases in defense spending. But, relax, WWIII is not starting. The possibility of major conflict between the US and Russia or China is virtually zero. Why? Because the US is sooooo militarily strong that no country would even think of starting anything serious.

Once agan, this graph backs this up:



Its from here:

"America’s staggering defense budget, in charts"
"1) The United States spent 20 percent of the federal budget on defense in 2011."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2013/01/07/everything-chuck-hagel-needs-to-know-about-the-defense-budget-in-charts/

[uhnope]

10. yeah, no major conflict. Just minor ones as the two largest dictatorships in the world slowly

take more and more of the world piece by piece. Not good news in my book

[Eugene]

3. New Reuters headline: Turkey shoots down drone near Syria, U.S. suspects Russian origin

Source: Reuters

World | Fri Oct 16, 2015 7:42am EDT

Turkey shoots down drone near Syria, U.S. suspects Russian origin

ANKARA | BY ORHAN COSKUN

Turkish warplanes shot down an unidentified drone in Turkish air space near Syria on Friday and a U.S. official said Washington believed it was of Russian origin.

The Russian defense ministry said all of its planes in Syria had safely returned to base and that all its drones were operating "as planned".

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/16/us-mideast-crisis-turkey-warplane-idUSKCN0SA15K20151016

[newthinking]

5. In other words: US injects information narrative into incident.

I doubt this is a Russian drone and I suspect the story will quietly "disappear". If it was Russian they would know by now and would be screaming it.

[PersonNumber503602]

6. It could still be Russian. It's not much different than when someone says they shot down a US drone

and the Pentagon says that all its drones are accounted for. You personally might give more trust to the Russians, but I don't think they are much different than the US when it comes to that sort of stuff.

[newthinking]

15. Certainly they both have their narratives.

[uawchild]

7. Shooting down spy drones/planes isn't that big a deal anyways.

It's widely recognized that a country has the right to shoot down unresponsive foreign military/spy aircraft intruding in their airspace. Hell, during the height of the cold war and nuclear apocalypse fears, a US spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union and it was considered not an issue to cause greater military response by either side. I remember reading that "cat and mouse" games were common between US and Soviet ships, subs and planes. Both sides considered them a form of military exercise to test their own capabilities. I might be wrong, but I remember reading that both US and Soviet subs were damaged in such skirmishing, even leading to loss of life.

Oh, yeah, I just googled US - Soviet submarine collisions and got tons of stuff like this :

"On Friday 3 October 1986, while on an otherwise routine Cold War nuclear deterrence patrol in the North Atlantic 680 miles (1,090 km) northeast of Bermuda, the 15-year-old K-219 suffered an explosion and fire in a missile tube. The seal in a missile hatch cover failed, allowing saltwater to leak into the missile tube and react with residue from the missile's liquid fuel. Though there was no official announcement, a published source said the Soviet Union claimed that the leak was caused by a collision with the submarine USS Augusta."

Shooting down drones, being unmanned, is even less a destabilizing event.

Spying, it's not personal, it's just business. /humour

[Demeter]

8. I also think the US is projecting

all the while they are sweating out the loss of one of their babies. What if the Russkies reverse-engineered it?

I say, more power to them! Figure out how to ground the drones forever!

[GGJohn]

12. Yea comrade,

we all know you hope it isn't glorious Russia's glorious drone.