President Barack Obama – always sensitive to neocon criticism that he’s “weak” – continues to edge the world closer to a nuclear confrontation with Russia as he talks tough and tolerates more provocations against Moscow, now including Turkey’s intentional shoot-down of a Russian warplane along the Turkish-Syrian border. [...]

A Syrian rebel commander who boasted of killing a Russian pilot after Turkey downed Russian jet on Tuesday appeared to be Turkish ultranationalist and a son of former mayor in one of Turkish provinces. Alparslan Celik, deputy commander of a Syrian Turkmen brigade turned out to be the son of a mayor of a Keban municipality in Turkey’s Elazig province. [...]

Paris spoke harshly about the downing of a Russian Su-24 warplane by Turkey during the discussions at a NATO Council meeting on November 24, a diplomatic source said Friday. ATHENS — Following the incident, NATO expressed solidarity with Turkey and offered support for Ankara saying that the Alliance's assessments of the incident were consistent with information provided by the country, which [...]

The NATO aggression against Russia, which was expressed in the form of an attack on the Russian Su-24 bomber, could not occur without the approval of the alliance’s senior management, noted Christopher Black, an international criminal lawyer based in Toronto. “The murder of one of the pilots, shot by ISIS [ISIL] terrorists while parachuting to the ground, is a war crime for which Turkey and [...]

Turkey's aggressive strike on the Russian Su-24 has clearly demonstrated the impotent rage of those who planned to redraw the map of the Middle East, British political writer and journalist Dan Glazebrook emphasizes. Syria appears to be a hard nut to crack for the "regime change camp," British political writer and journalist Dan Glazebrook notes, adding that Turkey's shooting down of the Russia [...]

Make no mistake, US author Stephen Lendman stresses, by downing Russia's Su-24 aircraft Turkey committed a clear act of war against a nonthreatening nation. By striking Russia's Su-24 Turkey has obviously committed an act of aggression against Russia; however, it is highly naive to believe that President Erdogan acted alone, unilaterally deciding to attack the Russian plane, US author and syndi [...]

Turkey has shown its hand by destroying the Russian warplane over Syria and followed through on its previous threats to Russia. We must now regard Turkey as a hostile state that supports terrorism. As has been widely reported, on November 24, Turkey – an EU aspirant NATO member – shot down a Russian warplane on legitimate Syrian duties. [...]

It all started with French President Francois Hollande, after the Paris attacks, having the temerity to advance the idea of France working together with Russia in the same coalition against ISIS/ISIL/Daesh in Syria. Turkish President Recep Tayyip “no excuse” Erdogan thought NATO and Russia by this time would be at each other’s – Cold War 2.0 – nuclear throats, while Washington had bru [...]

NATO member state Turkey seems strangely committed to keeping Islamic State going strong in Syria, thus willing to take dangerous risks in confronting Russia in the region. Hopefully cooler heads will prevail, a group of experts told RT. “I don’t think the Turkish government would have undertaken such an action against a military superpower like Russia without the consent of the US. It’s [...]

Turkey's downing of a Russian Su-24 over Syria has prompted geopolitics experts to explore Russia's options for how to respond, and to make predictions on how the incident will affect the political career of President Recep Erdogan. According to Expert.ru analyst Gevorg Mirzayan, things don't look so good [...]

Doctors Without Borders is challenging the Pentagon over the findings of internal probes into the bombing of a hospital in the Afghan city of Kunduz on October 3, saying the military's conclusions offer "more questions than answers" and that claims of "human error" simply don't correspond to the available facts. [...]

RT reporter Roman Kosarev, who was recently caught in shelling in Syria, says the atrocities he has seen at hotspots such as Syria and Eastern Ukraine have at times rendered him speechless, but this is also where unprecedented compassion can be found. We live in scary times. War, death, destruction, tears, hunger, refugees, indifference, carelessness, the glorification of the heinous and vulgar [...]

A Russian Su-24M tactical bomber was brought down over Syria by a Turkish Air Force fighter jet on Tuesday. Moscow and Ankara have put forward conflicting versions of what happened, and the circumstances of the crash remain under investigation. This is what is known so far. “Today at 9:30 the Russian aircraft, which performed combat counterterrorist missions was shot down by an aircraft of th [...]

Ankara says the Russian Su-24 frontline bomber was downed after it violated Turkish airspace for 17 seconds. Russian military says the jet never entered Turkish territory and the F-16 fighter itself breached Syrian airspace. The Russian Su-24M tactical bomber performing a combat sortie over the territory of Syria in the vicinity of the Turkish border was brought down by a Turkish Air Force figh [...]

Turkey’s shooting down of a Russian jet shows the utter desperation currently sweeping through the regime change camp as Russia closes in on the death squads in Syria. At 9:30am, a Russian SU-24 jet was shot down by a Turkish fighter plane. The pilots were then allegedly killed by Syrian Turkmen anti-government militias, with the body of one being paraded on camera in a video that was immedia [...]

Turkey appears to have deliberately shot down a Russian warplane as a provocation designed to escalate tensions between NATO and Russia, a ploy that seems to have sucked in President Obama as he tries to look tough against Russia to appease his neocon critics, writes Robert Parry. President Barack Obama – always sensitive to neocon criticism that he’s “weak” – continues to edge the wo [...]

With today's shooting down of a Russian SU24 by Turkey, the war in Syria just took a new twist - and one that sends a powerful message to the UK as it contemplates joining in bombing raids on Islamic State militants. And for those who are hard of hearing, that message is: 'keep well out!' Up until now, the war in Syria has looked complicated. On the one side the Syrian state led by President Basha [...]

Offering a dramatic window into the fractious and complex geopolitics that are now swirling around the war against the Islamic State inside Syria and Iraq, the downing of a Russian warplane by Turkey on Tuesday was also followed by the release of footage showing a Russian military helicopter being destroyed by Syrian rebel forces armed with U.S.-supplied anti-tank missiles. [...]

Turkey has been consistent in pursuing its own agenda: to pretend to be fighting ISIS while settling scores with one of the two parties that are actually capable of fighting ISIS on the ground – the Kurds, says Foreign Affairs Editor Srdja Trifkovic. As a Russian Su-24 fighter jet operating over Syria was shot down, RT discussed with experts the reasons and possible consequences of this incid [...]

Turkey has taken responsibility for shooting down a Russian fighter jet near the border with neighboring Syria on Tuesday, as both Moscow and Ankara put forth conflicting narratives about what led to the incident which has sparked an emergency meeting of NATO allies and strong rebuke from Russian President Vladimir Putin. [...]

A Russian warplane has gone down near the Turkish-Syrian border after an apparent attack. Turkish and Russian sources have given conflicting reports about the incident, which has the potential to escalate the tension between Russia and NATO member Turkey.   [...]

The Russian-led anti-terrorist campaign in Syria has taken center stage at the Gas Exporting Countries Forum in Tehran, where President Putin met with Iranian leaders and praised their country’s role in rooting out terrorism in the region. [...]