Syria’s Assad regrets downing Turkish jet

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad regrets that Syrian forces shot down a Turkish jet last month and said he would not allow the tensions between the two countries to turn into open combat, according to an interview with a Turkish newspaper.“We learned that it belonged to Turkey after shooting it down. I say 100 per cent: ‘If only we had not shot it down’,” Assad told Cumhuriyet, a daily newspaper, in an interview published on Tuesday.His comments emerged as fighting raged throughout the country. On Monday, Syrian helicopters bombarded a Damascus suburb, and Turkey again scrambled warplanes near the border in the north.Asked whether the tensions between Syria and Turkey could lead to war, Assad said: “We will not allow (the tensions) to turn into open combat between the two countries, which would harm them both.”He also said Syria had not amassed and would not amass military forces along the Turkish border, whatever action Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s government takes.The paper did not specify when the interview was held, but in it Assad refers to an international meeting held in Geneva on Saturday under the auspices of peace envoy Kofi Annan.Turkey has heightened military activity along the border since Syria shot down the Turkish jet over the Mediterranean on June 22, prompting a sharp rebuke from Ankara, which said it would respond “decisively”.Syria says it shot down the Turkish jet in self-defence and that it was downed by an anti-aircraft gun with limited range in Syrian air space. Turkey says the jet accidentally violated Syrian air space for a few minutes but was brought down by a surface-to-air missile in international air space.Assad said Syria would not shy away from apologising if it emerged that the plane was shot down in international airspace.