The United States believes that the Russian jet shot down by Turkey on Tuesday was hit inside Syrian airspace after a brief incursion into Turkish airspace, a U.S. official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The official said that assessment was based on detection of the heat signature of the jet.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Russian Ministry of Defense also released video proving that the incident did not happen the way the Turkish government claims. Flight path data of the Su-24 shows that it never entered Turkish airspace, and was attacked while flying over Syria.
The bomber was shot down by two Turkish F-16s Tuesday morning. One of the pilots has been confirmed dead by Russian authorities, shot by terrorist ground units after ejecting.
Russian President Vladimir Putin described the incident as a “stab in the back, carried out against us by accomplices of terrorists.”
