2015 Russian Sukhoi Su-24 shootdown al-Nusra Front fighters. Russia has bombed the area near the Turkish border to support Syrian government forces. Syrian Turkmen formed their own armed brigades called Syrian Turkmen Brigades in opposition to the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad, loosely affiliated with other rebels such as the Free Syrian Army. The Turkmen brigades also cooperate with al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate the al-Nusra Front and with the Salafi coalition known as Ahrar al-Sham. In Latakia the Turkish-supported rebels formed the Jabal al-Turkman Brigade. On 24 November 2015 at 9:24 am, as it was returning to Khmeimim airbase, a Russian Sukhoi Su-24 aircraft with
Sukhoi Su-30MKI demonstrator and Su-30 program, being more advanced than the Su-30MK and the Chinese Su-30MKK/MK2. Russia's Defence Ministry was impressed with the type's performance envelope and ordered 30 Su-30SMs, a localised Su-30MKI, for the Russian Air Force. It features state of the art avionics developed by Russia, India and Israel for display, navigation, targeting and electronic warfare; France and South Africa provided other avionics. After two years of evaluation and negotiations, on 30 November 1996, India signed a US$1.462 billion deal with Sukhoi for 50 Russian-produced Su-30MKIs in five batches. The first batch were eight Su-30MKs, the basic version of Su-30.