Russia's Foreign Ministry has called on the United Nations to react to a recent incident in which three Russian journalists escorted by the Syrian Army in a government-held area in Latakia were injured after coming under fire from armed opposition groups.
The three journalists -- two from RT and one from TASS -- were wearing "all the required identificating signs of media workers but were fired on," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a press briefing.
The journalists were hit by a TOW anti-tank missile of the type supplied to Western-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebels.
Zakharova also criticized the Western-backed rebels, saying that it was the "moderate opposition" who had "put photos of the journalists on the internet and wrote, 'if you see them, kill them'."
Russia has made no distinction between the IS group, Islamist rebels and Western-backed FSA fighters.
The Foreign Ministry's comments come amid soaring tensions with Turkey over the downing of the Russian Su-24 jet in Syria and amid ongoing criticism that Russian air strikes in Syria are targeting armed opposition groups rather than IS.
Economic measures against Turkey in the wake of the downing of the Russian Su-24 warplane could include freezing the Turkish Stream proposed natural gas pipeline and the Akkuyu nuclear power plant, Russian Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukaev has said.
The Turkish Stream project "does not differ from any other project and it is likewise about our investment cooperation, and likewise is subject to the law on special economic measures, just like any other project," Ulyukaev said, adding that the Akkuyu nuclear plant is in the same category.
The Akkuyu plant is under construction in Turkey's Mersin province and is expected to be completed in 2020.
Iran's Fars News, which has ties to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), is reporting that Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani led the rescue operation that retrieved the Russian navigator from the downed Su-24 jet.
The Fars report comes after reports that Soleimani had been injured a few days ago in fighting in the southwest of Aleppo province.
Reports had been circulating that Soleimani had been killed or seriously injured. But a security source on the ground in Syria told AFP yesterday that the general had been only "lightly injured."
Turkey will not apologize for downing the Russian Su-24, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has told CNN.
"I think if there is a party that needs to apologize, it is not us," Erdogan said.
"Those who violated our airspace are the ones who need to apologize. Our pilots and our armed forces, they simply fulfilled their duties, which consisted of responding to ... violations of the rules of engagement. I think this is the essence."
A large mosque in Brussels has been evacuated after the discovery there of a suspicious envelope containing an unidentified white powder.
Police and decontamination crews converged at the Islamic and Cultural Center of Belgium, near the headquarters of the European Union, on November 26 to secure the scene.
A fire service spokesperson said someone at the mosque had called them to alert them to the suspicious substance.
Brussels has been under high security alert since November 21 following what officials described as credible threats of a "Paris-like attack," referring to the November 13 terrorist attacks in the French capital that left 130 dead and hundreds injured.
Since those attacks, which involved alleged terrorists from Belgium, a previously unknown group called Christian State has issued threats against Belgian mosques.
Some 500,000 Muslims live in Belgium. (Reuters, AP)
A group of Turkish businessmen have reportedly been detained in the Russian city of Krasnodar for "making false statements about their trip to the country," Turkey's Hurriyet News is reporting.
The report comes amid soaring tensions between Turkey and Russia following the downing of a Russian Su-24 jet near the Syrian border two days ago.
The businessmen are thought to be part of a delegation attending an International Agricultural Fair on November 25 and are believed to have been brought before a judge early this morning. The businessmen are set to be deported, the report says.
Turkey has "no reason to target Russia with whom we have strong relations," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said, according to Turkey's Hurriyet News.
Turkey shot down a Russian Su-24 warplane near the Syrian border two days ago.
Erdogan said the "nationality of the plane was unknown at the time of the incident."
The Turkish president also responded to allegations by Russia's Prime Minister, Dmitry Medvedev, who said Turkey was buying oil from IS. Erdogan said that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was buying the oil from IS, and accused Russia of not fighting IS but of targeting the "moderate opposition."
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has called Turkey's downing of an Su-24 jet an "act of aggression," TASS reports.
"This, obviously, was an act of aggression against our state from Turkey, our neighbor, and also a member of NATO. Military and diplomatic responses to this crime have already occurred and will go on," Medvedev said, adding that there will also be economic measures taken.
AP is reporting that there have been fresh air strikes in northern Syria, near the Turkish border, citing reports by two groups that track the war -- the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) and the Syrian pro-opposition Local Coordination Committees.
The strikes reportedly hit the highway linking the strategic border town of Azaz with the Bab al-Salameh border crossing with Turkey.
SOHR is saying that the air strikes were Russian.
There were air strikes on Azaz yesterday as well, which according to purported footage from the scene hit a convoy of trucks, which activists say were carrying aid.