Syria has banned all Turkish civil aircraft from overflying in its territory from as of Saturday midnight. According to the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it is in retaliation for a similar prohibition taken by Ankara, read a statement released by the official news agency SANA.
Turkey has not announced similar measures, but has indicated that it would intercept all Syrian civilian aircraft suspected of carrying cargoes of arms and ammunition for the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
On Thursday, Turks intercepted a Syrian airliner from Moscow. The Turkish authorities confiscated some of its cargo deemed suspicious, raising tensions with Russia, a traditional ally of Damascus.
Meanwhile, Syrian rebels shot yesterday, a jet fighter in the province of Aleppo, in northern Syria, where the regime's air force bombed positions taken by the insurgents who try to block government reinforcements on two routes connecting the city to Damascus. In addition, eight people, including two women and a child, were killed yesterday in a car bomb explosion near a former stronghold of the regime near Damascus, reported the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
