| Couldn’t happen to a more deserving wannabe sultan. |
[atimes] With suspicions running high that the nominal allies drew each other's blood on February 3, Ankara may well seek a modus vivendi with the USTwo things differentiate the downing of a Russian Su-25 ground-attack jet in the western province of Idlib on February 3 from the drone attacks on the Russian air base at Hmeimim a month earlier.
One, Russia could thwart the attack on January 5 by a wave of drone aircraft but singularly failed to anticipate the use of man-portable air defense systems by extremists operating in Idlib under Turkish watch. Russia lost an ace fighter pilot in the latter attack.
Two, Moscow sensed an American hand in the drone attack on January 5, but this time around Russia’s Tass news agency promptly highlighted an American denial on record. The Kremlin’s Dmitry Peskov made a point of cautioning against speculations “before one gets precise information as to how terrorists in Syria got that particular man-portable air defense system and other weapons that they have.”
Suffice to say, the air is thick with innuendos and dark hints that Russia and Turkey may have drawn each other’s blood on February 3, despite notionally being allies in Syria’s hybrid war.