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Syrian President Bashar al-Assad regrets that Syrian forces shot down a Turkish jet last month and said he would not allow the tensions between the two countries to turn into open combat, according to an interview with a Turkish newspaper.

“We learned that it belonged to Turkey after shooting it down. I say 100 per cent: ‘If only we had not shot it down’,” Assad told Cumhuriyet, a daily newspaper, in an interview published on Tuesday.

Al-Jazeera is also reporting that the pilots’ bodies have been found.