Turkey warns Syria over border

Turkey warned on Tuesday that any Syrian military unit approaching its border will be treated as a direct threat, a serious escalation in tensions days after Syria shot a Turkish military plane out of the sky.

Turkey's NATO allies expressed solidarity with Ankara and condemned the Syrian attack but made no mention of any retaliatory action against Syria.

"The rules of engagement of the Turkish Armed Forces have changed," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a televised speech. "Any military element that approaches the Turkish border from Syria and poses a security risk and danger will be regarded as a threat and treated as a military target."

"No one should be deceived by our cool-headed stance," Erdogan added. "Our acting with common sense should not be perceived as a weakness."

Syria insists the downing was an accident caused by the "automatic response" of an officer commanding an anti-aircraft position who saw an unidentified jet flying at high speed and low altitude. Turkey says Syria shot down the unarmed jet in international airspace without warning in a "deliberate" and "hostile" act.

NATO on Tuesday condemned Syria's shooting as unacceptable but did not speak of any possible armed action against Syria.

Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said after an emergency meeting in Brussels of ambassadors from NATO's 28 member states that Turkey had the support of all its partners.

AP-Reuters-AFP