19:32, 27 November 2015

ASF Commander: place of filming Su-24 was controlled by militants from Caucasus

Su-24 at Hmeymim Air Basein in Latakia, Syria, October 2015. Photo: https://ru.wikipedia.org/

Natives of Northern Caucasus and former Soviet republics control the territory, from which they made video filming the attack on the Russian Su-24 bomber, shot down by a Turkish fighter on November 24, said Victor Bondarev, the Commander of the Aerospace Forces (ASF) of Russia.

On November 24, a Russian Su-24 bomber from Russian Air Force deployed in Syria was attacked by a couple of Turkish F-16 fighters and shot down by an "air-to-air" missile. This led to an aggravation of Russian-Turkish relations. According to Turkey, the bomber had penetrated into the Turkish airspace; the Russian Ministry of Defence denies this fact.

The Commander of the Aerospace Forces has reported today that the video operator had known exactly the time and place of an attack on the Russian bomber, the RIA "Novosti" reports.

"The camera angles help to establish its possible location, which is in the territory controlled by radical terrorist groupings of natives from Northern Caucasus and the former USSR republics. The operator knew the time and place from which he would make the exclusive footage," said Victor Bondarev.

He has stressed that Turkish mass media had prepared in advance to cover this incident, as the video with the fall of the Su-24 was posted on the YouTube by a Turkish private TV company 1.5 hours after the missile strike.

On November 24, information appeared that one of terrorist groupings in Syria, consisting mainly of natives of Chechnya and Dagestan, had announced its intention to exchange the dead Su-24 pilot for its supporters, the "LifeNews" reports.

According to the "LifeNews", this statement was made by the grouping, comprising former members of "Imarat Kavkaz" (a terrorist organization banned in Russia), who crossed the border in 2011 and are dealing with recruiting mercenaries from Northern Caucasus.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.