If Putin was angry when Turkey shot down a Russian plane, which may or may not have crossed Turkish territory - reports on both sides are conflicting - he will be absolutely livid to learn that, according to Turkey's Dogan News, the Russian pilots who had parachuted in an attempt to save their lives after the plane was shot down, had been executed while parachuting down by local rebels, which considering the video released earlier belonged to the Free Syrian Army [4], are same "rebels" who are funded directly by the CIA.
Both Russian pilots shot dead while parachuting down says Dogan News Agency citing Turkmen opposition commander
— Fercan Yalinkilic (@FercanY) November 24, 2015 [5]
And this:
DHA Muhabirinin görü?tü?ü Türkmen 2'nci Sahil Tümen Komutan Yard?mc?s? Alpaslan Çelik: Pilotlardan ikisini de para?ütle inerken vurduk
— Damla Do?an (@dmladogan) November 24, 2015 [6]
As Telegraph points out [7], the above tweet is from CNN Turk's Foreign Editor who tweeted that the Turkmen rebels DHA spoke to said: "We hit at the two pilots after they parachuted."
This, as many have already pointed out, is a war crime.
The only question is whether this, together with the provocative action by Turkey which many can see being an act of war, will be deemed as such by Putin.
The parachuters can be seen in the second half of the clip below:
For those who missed it, here is the video uploaded by the Free Syrian Army of at least one dead parachuter.
And here is the video of rebels opening fire on Russian pilots:
As one commentator notes [8], in the video one person shouts over the gun fire, "don't fire. Let's take them prisoners. Don't fire. Prisoners" but it was not meant to be.
Reuters confirms [9]the pilots' death: Turkmen forces in Syria shot dead the two pilots of a Russian jet downed by Turkish warplanes near the border with Turkey on Tuesday as they descended with parachutes, a deputy commander of a Turkmen brigade told reporters.
"Both of the pilots were retrieved dead. Our comrades opened fire into the air and they died in the air," Alpaslan Celik, a deputy commander in a Syrian Turkmen brigade said near the Syrian village of Yamadi as he held what he said was a piece of a pilot's parachute.
"Our units, who received the information that the two pilots were alive, are working to get them from opposition rebels safely," the official said.
The Russian General Staff said that, according to preliminary data, one of the Su-24 pilots has died after being fired at from the ground.
* * *
According to the Geneva Convention attacks on persons parachuting from an aircraft in distress are stricly banned: if the person in distress is not acting in a hostile manner, he is to be given the chance to surrender after reaching the ground.
