Turkey moves military equipment to the Syrian border

Following a statement by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that the regime of Bashar al-Assad is a threat to the security of Turkey, a large amount of Turkish military equipment has massed on the border with Syria, Trend cites Turkey's Zaman newspaper as saying.

Earlier today, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad poses a threat to Turkey and its citizens.

"After Syria shot down our Turkish military aircraft in international airspace, we will take more serious steps in the framework of international legal standards," Erdogan said.

The Turkish RF-4E reconnaissance aircraft, which took off on Friday from the Erhach airbase in Malatya province in south-eastern Turkey, disappeared from the radar screens at about noon local time in the Mediterranean Sea to the south-east of the province of Hatay bordering on Syria.

Syria said it shot down a Turkish aircraft over its territorial waters after it invaded Syria's airspace. However, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that the plane was shot down in international airspace and that wreckage fell into the territorial waters of Syria.