Arab News Network Claims Assad Executed Turkish Pilots Shot Down in June

The UAE-based Al-Arabiya news network is claiming to have leaked Syrian intelligence documents that indicated the two Turkish air force pilots who were shot down last June survived the downing of their F-4 Phantom jet and were later executed upon orders from Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad. Western sources have denied the report which implicates Russia. One document says “Two Turkish pilots were captured by the Syrian Air Force Intelligence after their jet was shot down in coordination with the Russian naval base in the Syrian city of Tartus.”  A second document reads, “Based on information and guidance from the Russian leadership comes a need to eliminate the two Turkish pilots detained by the Special Operations Unit in a natural way and their bodies need to be returned to the crash site in international waters.”  The Israeli news source Y-Net, the Internet service of the daily newspaper Yediot Aharonot, contacted Western sources who denied the Al-Arabiya version of events. The  bodies of the two Turkish pilots were subsequently found at the crash site.