There have been several reports today that Russian planes have targeted Syrian border crossings and towns on the Turkish border.
Residents of the rebel-held Syrian border town of Saraqeb say that Russian planes bombed a busy main square today where vehicles brought in from Turkey via the Bab al-Hawa border crossing were being sold, Reuters report.
Saraqeb is in Idlib province, on the border with Turkey. Its car market is the biggest in the province.
One resident who witnessed the air strike told Reuters that several wounded people had been taken to hospital.
The powder found at a Brussels mosque has turned out to be a false alarm, our news desk reports:
A suspicious envelope containing a white powder discovered in a large mosque in Brussels has turned out to be flour.
Anne Wibin, the spokesperson of the Brussels fire department, told journalists on November 26 that the department had received a call from the mosque from a person saying they believed that they had found anthrax powder.
Wibin said tests proved the substance was not anthrax, with a police official later saying it was flour.
Police and decontamination crews had converged at the Islamic and Cultural Center of Belgium, near the headquarters of the European Union, to secure the scene.
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. (Reuters, AP)
The Israeli media is quoting a senior Israel Air Force (IAF) source as saying that Israel would not shoot down a Russian plane that entered its air space.
The comments come amid soaring tensions between Turkey and Russia following the downing of a Russian warplane near the Syrian border two days ago.
"The Russian Army is a new and central player and we do not ignore it," the senior official was quoted as saying.
"There is a clear separation and they are engaged in their [own] business and we are busy with ours."
Israel shot down a Russian-built Syrian fighter jet over the occupied Golan Heights in September 2014 after it strayed into Israeli-controlled air space.
But the senior official said that Israel's policy was "that we do not attack or shoot down anything Russian."
"Russia is not our enemy. We try to avoid friction with the Russians. The aim of both sides is not to get into a situation where two planes, Israeli and Russian, meet in the air so that there is a question of what to do. We do not approach the space where they are operating, and they do not approach the space where we are operating," the official added.
This just in from Brussels -- the terror alert has now been reduced from its highest level, AFP reports.
Russia's Defense Ministry has tweeted photos of the S-400 anti aircraft system which it says has been deployed at the Hmeymim air base in Latakia province.
Russia's Defense Ministry is saying that the armed rebels active in the area where the navigator from the downed Su-24 was rescued have been "destroyed."
More on the Russian Defense Ministry's claim that the armed rebels in the area where the navigator from the downed Su-24 jet was rescued yesterday have been "destroyed."
The announcement was made by the Defense Ministry's spokesman, Gen. Maj. Igor Konashenkov, Russian media says.
"As soon as our pilot was safe, the area was hit with massive strikes from Russian bombers and rocket artillery fire from Syrian government forces over a long period. The terrorists and other secret groups operating in that area have been destroyed," Konashenkov said.
Russia's Defense Ministry says Turkey told Russia's military attache that it did not distribute in the media the audio recording of the radio transmissions of the F-16 fighter crew with the Su-24 pilots, pro-Kremlin RIA Novosti is reporting.
Russia's Defense Ministry published this video of the guided missile cruiser Moskva, the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet, which also arrived at Latakia, Syria today.
More comments from Turkish President Erdogan today amid soaring tensions between his country and Russia. Erdogan told France 24 that he had telephoned Russian President Putin after the downing of the jet -- but Putin did not answer.