What was the Agenda?
Picking up on the agenda point above.
There has been a lot of comment that the Russian air effort was not initially focussed on the elimination of IS.
There are reports that the Turks had made comments to the Russians about not breaching the territorial integrity of Turkey after some previous incursions or very close calls.
So the Russian targeting strategy was alleged to have changed and they were focussing on IS. One could then ask why were they bombing Turkman "rebel forces", next to the Turkish Border, as I understand it the Turkmen are staunch foes of Bashar al-Assad, having not really been recognised as an ethnic group by the Syrian Government, according to the BBC web site the Turks have trained and I assume equipped the Turkmen.
I have never heard of the Turkmen being allied to IS, indeed there are reports of the Turkmen and Kurdish forces fighting IS. Implicitly attacking the well equipped Turkmen is contrary to the stated Russian aim of destroying IS/ISIL etc.
So was Russia attacking Turkmen near the Turkish border in the hope of getting Turkey to respond as it did? And of course why? To split NATO and Turkey?
Remembering that the Syrians shot down a Turkish F4 for a not dissimilar incursion a few years ago, was the Su 24 obviously a Russian one in any case as the Syrian Air Force has them I understand.
Last edited by PhilipG; 25th Nov 2015 at 15:14.
Reason: Added last sentence about F4 being shot down