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Syria to Turkey: Show me the missile

Here's a simple rendering of the disputed accounts of what the Turks call Syria's "violation of international law" when a Turkish fighter jet was shot down in late June. 

Syria: We hit the Turkish plane at close range using a simple anti-aircraft battery that has a range of less than 2km. It all happened so fast, we only found out afterwards that the plane was Turkish. We gave Turkey a piece of the tail fin with bullet holes in it, to prove that’s what happened.

Turkey: The plane was 13 miles (21km) offshore in international airspace when it was hit. So the Syrians must have used a missile, and therefore radar and command channels were involved. The Syrians knew it was a Turkish plane, and we have the evidence to prove it.

Except that, as more information seeps out of the Turkish camp, it appears they still don't have the proof.

In a statement on Monday, Turkish Defence Minister Ismet Yilmaz said, "Among the pieces [of the F4] retrieved so far there have been no traces of a missile."

περισσότερα aljazeera
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