Syrian passenger plane flying from Moscow forced to land in Ankara

Turkey says it has intelligence that plane was carrying 'non-civilian' cargo to Syria

The Syrian passenger plane at Esenboga airport in Ankara, Turkey. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Reuters

Turkey scrambled fighter planes to force a Syrian passenger jet to land and seized what it suspected was military equipment being ferried from Russia to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces.

The interception of the Syrian Air plane came hours after Turkey's chief of staff warned that his troops would respond with greater force if shells from Syria continued to hit Turkish territory.

Military jets escorted the Damascus-bound Airbus A-320, which was carrying about 30 passengers from Moscow, into Ankara airport late on Wednesday after Turkey received intelligence that it was carrying military supplies.

The plane and its passengers were allowed to continue after parts of the cargo were seized. Officials gave no details of what was confiscated, saying investigations were underway, but some Turkish newspapers said the cargo included non-lethal supplies such as radio equipment.
"We are determined to control weapons transfers to a regime that carries out such brutal massacres against civilians. It is unacceptable that such a transfer is made using our airspace," Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu said.

"Today we received information this plane was carrying cargo of a nature that could not possibly be in compliance with the rules of civil aviation," he said in Athens during an official visit, in comments broadcast live on Turkish television.
He said Turkey was within its rights to investigate planes suspected of carrying military materials but declined to say what was in the seized cargo.

Turkey would continue to investigate Syrian civilian aircraft using its airspace, Davutoglu added.
He also said Syrian airspace was no longer safe and that Turkish passenger planes should not fly there. A Reuters witness at the border saw at least one passenger plane turn around as it approached Syria and head back into Turkey on Wednesday.

There was no immediate reaction from Moscow, which has blocked tougher UN resolutions against Damascus.
"Once a week a Syrian Airlines airplane flies from Moscow bound for Damascus," Interfax reported Vnukovo airport spokeswoman Yelena Krylova as saying. "The plane took off normally, there were no incidents."
Interfax cited her as saying 25 people were on board the chartered plane and it left 20 minutes after its scheduled afternoon departure time.

Turkey's armed forces have bolstered their presence along the border and have been firing back over the past week in response to gunfire and shelling coming across from northern Syria, where Assad's forces have been battling rebels.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 70 people had been killed across Syria on Wednesday, including six rebels in the strategic town of Maarat al-Nuaman, on the north-south highway linking Aleppo to Damascus.