Russia has denied reports that it bombed a humanitarian aid convoy near the Syrian border town of Azaz yesterday, pro-Kremlin media is reporting.
A video posted on YouTube by local activists showed aid trucks on fire at the Bab al-Salam border crossing but it was not clear to which group the trucks belonged.
A spokesman for Russia's Defense Ministry said that the reports were "stovepiping" -- a term used to mean presenting raw information without context.
"The reports appearing in the foreign media are stovepiping, about the alleged destruction of a humanitarian convoy of trucks from Turkey by Russian planes near the Bab al-Salam crossing. Ultimately, there are no remains of any munitions. Therefore we recommend that the next time a truck convoy with munitions for militants operating in northern Aleppo catches fire, it isn't passed off as humanitarian aid," the spokesman said.
The spokesman added that Turkey had not given any information about any aid convoy passing through that area.
More comments from Turkish President Erdogan today amid soaring tensions between his country and Russia. Erdogan told France 24 that he had telephoned Russian President Putin after the downing of the jet -- but Putin did not answer.
Russia's Defense Ministry published this video of the guided missile cruiser Moskva, the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet, which also arrived at Latakia, Syria today.
Russia's Defense Ministry says Turkey told Russia's military attache that it did not distribute in the media the audio recording of the radio transmissions of the F-16 fighter crew with the Su-24 pilots, pro-Kremlin RIA Novosti is reporting.
More on the Russian Defense Ministry's claim that the armed rebels in the area where the navigator from the downed Su-24 jet was rescued yesterday have been "destroyed."
The announcement was made by the Defense Ministry's spokesman, Gen. Maj. Igor Konashenkov, Russian media says.
"As soon as our pilot was safe, the area was hit with massive strikes from Russian bombers and rocket artillery fire from Syrian government forces over a long period. The terrorists and other secret groups operating in that area have been destroyed," Konashenkov said.
Russia's Defense Ministry is saying that the armed rebels active in the area where the navigator from the downed Su-24 was rescued have been "destroyed."
Russia's Defense Ministry has tweeted photos of the S-400 anti aircraft system which it says has been deployed at the Hmeymim air base in Latakia province.
This just in from Brussels -- the terror alert has now been reduced from its highest level, AFP reports.
The Israeli media is quoting a senior Israel Air Force (IAF) source as saying that Israel would not shoot down a Russian plane that entered its air space.
The comments come amid soaring tensions between Turkey and Russia following the downing of a Russian warplane near the Syrian border two days ago.
"The Russian Army is a new and central player and we do not ignore it," the senior official was quoted as saying.
"There is a clear separation and they are engaged in their [own] business and we are busy with ours."
Israel shot down a Russian-built Syrian fighter jet over the occupied Golan Heights in September 2014 after it strayed into Israeli-controlled air space.
But the senior official said that Israel's policy was "that we do not attack or shoot down anything Russian."
"Russia is not our enemy. We try to avoid friction with the Russians. The aim of both sides is not to get into a situation where two planes, Israeli and Russian, meet in the air so that there is a question of what to do. We do not approach the space where they are operating, and they do not approach the space where we are operating," the official added.