Turkey arrests Syrian regime pilot whose jet crashed in Turkey last month

Turkish authorities ordered the arrest of a Syrian regime pilot yesterday, whose fighter jet crashed on Turkish soil last month, on charges of espionage and violating Turkish borders, Turkish state-run Anadolu reported.

According to the Turkish news agency, the pilot, who was identified as Colonel Mohamed Sufan, 56, was being treated at a hospital following his crash, and was arrested after his treatment was successfully completed.

Sufan told the Turkish public prosecutor that his aircraft took off from the Syrian coastal city of Latakia and was shot down when it was heading to strike a rural area in Idlib governorate, a major opposition-held territory in northern Syria.

Sufan suffered spinal injuries and other superficial wounds to his legs and face, but he was in a stable condition.

The Ahrar Al-Sham opposition group announced that its anti-aircraft missiles had struck the Assad regime aircraft piloted by Sufan and was downed near Salqeen, on the border with Turkey. Ahrar said that the regime jet had carried out a number of attacks in Idlib before it was shot down.

There are currently no agreements between Turkey and Syria to deal with pilots and other hostile combatants straying into each other’s territories.