Seventeen Turkish troops die in helicopter crash

Turkish Kurdish PKK separatists are suspected of downing the Turkish Sikorsky with an anti-air missile Saturday over the Pervari area inside the Iraq-Syria-Turkish border triangle. Ankara said later that bad weather conditions caused the crash. DEBKAfile: Syrian ruler Bashar Assad is believed to have armed the Kurdish PKK with anti-air missiles in revenge for the delivery of American-made Stingers to Syrian rebels. Last Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said: “We have verified information that thee are more than 50 Stingers in Syrian now.”