Turkey Officially Places Syrian Pilot Under Detention

Attorney General of Hatay province announced that his country’s authorities have arrested Colonel Mohammad Soufan, whose jet crashed in Turkish territory on March 4th.

Soufan was injured in the incident and was treated in a Turkish medical center.

The Syrian pilot was arrested by Hatay police on charges of spying and violating Turkish airspace and was transferred to a detention center.

Turkish authorities had previously said that they would hand over Soufan to Damascus, but after the US missile attack on Shayrat airbase in Homs on Friday they changed their decision.

In March, Turkish media said rescuers found a pilot of the Syrian jet that crashed on the border between the two countries, adding that the pilot is now hospitalized in Turkey.

The pilot was injured and he was first taken to the gendarmerie, then hospitalized, Daily Sabah reported.

​The news comes after the Syrian army said it had lost contact with a jet performing a reconnaissance mission near the Turkish border. The military was also said to be looking for a pilot who had ejected, according to the Syrian news agency SANA.

Militants of the Ahrar al-Sham terror group claimed that they had shot down a plane, allegedly a MiG-21, but Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim confirmed that the Syrian military plane crashed in Turkey’s Southern Hatay province.

Media reports said, citing Turkish sources, that the jet was a MiG-23 fighter rather than a MiG-21.

Debris of the crashed Syrian fighter jet were found near the Turkish border with Syria, according to the Hatay province governor.