Obama, Erdogan agree on de-escalating Turkish-Russian tension: White House

U.S. President Barack Obama and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan talked over phone on Tuesday about the need to de-escalate the situation after Turkey shot down a Russian warplane near the Turkish-Syrian border, the White House said.

According to a brief statement by the White House, Obama expressed "U.S. and NATO support for Turkey's right to defend its sovereignty."

"The leaders agreed on the importance of de-escalating the situation and pursuing arrangements to ensure that such incidents do not happen again," said the statement.

Earlier Tuesday, a Russian Su-24 crashed in Syria allegedly because of gunfire from the ground, Interfax news agency quoted an unnamed Defense Ministry official as saying.

According to the Turkish military, the Su-24 had been warned 10 times in five minutes about its violation of Turkish airspace, before two Turkish F-16 jets "interfered".

The latest statement released by the Russian Defense Ministry said that the Su-24 was shot down by a Turkish F-16 jet while returning to Syria's Hmeimim airbase, where a Russian airforce group for anti-terrorist strikes is located.