Turkey says Syrian air defenses put Turkish jets under radar lock

Syrian air defense systems have "harassed" Turkish F-16 fighter jets patrolling their own airspace by repeatedly putting them under "radar lock", suggesting they were about to be fired at, the Turkish military said on Thursday.

The incident, which took place on Wednesday, comes only days after Turkey downed a Syrian warplane that Ankara said had violated its airspace, in an area where Syrian rebels have been battling President Bashar al-Assad's forces.

Syria condemned what it called a "blatant aggression" and said the jet had been pursuing rebel fighters inside Syria. It said the pilot had managed to eject.

"Defense systems deployed in Syria have harassed our F-16 fighter jets ... by putting them under a radar lock for a total of two minutes and 20 seconds," the military said in a statement, adding that there had been 14 separate instances.

It also said two Turkish jets had been scrambled on Wednesday to intercept a Syrian warplane as it approached the border. The warplane turned around only 1.4 nautical miles short of the Turkish border at Yayladagi, it said.

More than 140,000 people have been killed in Syria's conflict, while 2.5 million refugees have fled to neighboring countries and millions more need humanitarian aid.

Assad's forces have already lost control of most border crossings with Turkey during the three-year civil war, but have held on to Kasab, gateway to the coastal province of Latakia, which has remained an Assad stronghold.

Also on Thursday, activists said Syrian planes have bombed rebel positions in the coastal province of Latakia, where opposition fighters have been making gains while battling government troops for six straight days.
     
The area is the heartland of President Bashar Assad's Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
     
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said government aircraft Thursday dropped several barrel bombs on a hilltop area known as Observatory 45.
     
The Local Coordination Committees, a Syria-based opposition group that also documents the conflict, reported two government airstrikes on the strategic post.
     
Following the start of their push in Latakia on Friday, rebels from several Islamic groups, including an al-Qaeda-affiliate, seized a border crossing with Turkey. This week they also gained a tiny outlet to the sea, the first time in the conflict.
 
This as the Syrian Observatory for Human rights reported that the head of the military council in Syria's Qalamoun Ahmad Nawaf Dorra was killed along 5 other fighters in barrel bombs targeting the region of Flita.