Your trusted source

NATO has called an emergency meeting in Brussels on Tuesday after two Turkish F-16 fighter jets shot down a Russian warplane near Turkey's border with Syria in an incident that raises the possibility of conflict between Moscow and NATO, Foxnews.com reported.

"The aim of this extraordinary North Atlantic Council meeting is for Turkey to inform allies about the downing of a Russian airplane," NATO's deputy spokesperson Carmen Romero told the Associated Press.
A U.S. official confirmed to Fox News that the Russian Sukhoi-24 was downed by an air-to-air missile north of the Syrian port city of Latakia. The official added that the Russian jet was warned three times to depart Turkish airspace.

The official told Fox News that the Su-24's two pilots parachuted safely and were last seen attempting to evade capture. Two Russian helicopters were airborne to attempt a rescue mission.

Video footage of the incident showed the plane on fire before crashing on a hill. Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the warplane crashed in the Turkmen Mountains region in the coastal province of Latakia. The region has been subjected to an offensive by Syrian government forces over the past several days under the cover of Russian airstrikes. The area is controlled by several insurgent groups, including Al Qaeda's branch in Syria, the Nusra Front, and the 2nd Coastal Division that consists of local Turkmen fighters.

A Turkish military statement said the plane entered Turkish airspace over the town of Yayladagi, in Hatay province. It said the plane was warned 10 times within the space of 5 minutes.

Russia denied that the plane ever crossed the Syrian border into Turkish skies.

"We are looking into the circumstances of the crash of the Russian jet," the country's Defense Ministry said in a statement. "The Ministry of Defense would like to stress that the plane was over the Syrian territory throughout the flight."