reporting" live from the fox news deck. the big picture here, everything is now more complicated, especially the proxy war under way in the midst of the syrian civil war and the fight against isis. president obama says the obvious. turkey has a right to defend its air space after turkish jets shot down a russian plane. turkish officials say the jet flew over turkey. president obama lz says if vladimir putin would just focus more on defeating the islamic state and less on trying to prop up the murderous dictator bashar al assad events like this would be less likely to happen. >> they are operating very close to a turkish border and they are going after moderate opposition that are supported by not only turkey but a wide range of countries. >> video shows the russian plane engulfed in flames, slamming into the ground in northern syria after a long, steep fall. just across turkey's border. you can also see two pilots parachuting to the ground as the smoke rises from the crash site. ethnic turks who live in syria and fight alongside the syrian rebels against assad say their forces shot the pilots as they descended. the turks also say one pilot was dead when he reached the ground. human rights activists say that jet crashed in the mountains in northern syria after turkish officials say it crossed over the ha te'i province in turkey. turkey's president says there were no islamic state fighters in that area. that's not what they're after, remember. turkish officials have released a radar image saying it proves it crossed into its air space. the blue area is the turkish war space. this that looks like the bottom of texas is where they say the crossover happened. see the orange line? that's it. a matter of seconds. they also say they repeatedly warned the pilots they were violating air space. vladimir putin is calling the shoot-down, though, a stab in the back that russia will not tolerate. >> translator: we of course will analyze in detail everything that has happened. and today's tragic event will have significant consequences for the relations between russia and turkey, too. >> well, t video purports to show syrian rebels today blowing up a russian helicopter after forcing it to make an emergency landing. fox news cannot confirm the video's authenticity. but we can get to jennifer griffin live at the pentagon on a complicated day. word the chopper may have been trying to rescue the russian pilots. >> that's right. we've learned from russian state media a russian marine was killed trying to rescue the downed pilots who parachuted out of the plane. the video you mentioned shows syrian rebels shooting a u.s.-made anti-tank missile at the russian helicopter as russian marines tried to rescue the pilots at the scene of the crash in northern syria. russia state news agency has also just confirmed that one of the russian pilots is dead following the crash, shep. >> do we know for sure that that russian war plane violated the air space? and if so, for how long? >> well, for a few seconds, we're told, they did cross into turkey. u.s. defense sources tell me that the actual radar track validate turkish claims. authorities released this map, the one you showed showing the path of the russian plane, u.s. pilots flying nearby i'm told heard the multiple warnings issued by the f-16 pilot totz russian pilots on the guard frequency. amanda tory radio frequency in all aircraft. >> we were able to hear everything that was going on. obviously these are on open channels. i'm sure there's others who heard it all as well. >> the turks say they issued ten warnings in a matter of five minutes. military sources whom i spoke to just minutes after the plane went down told me two turkish f-16s were involved, one fired an aim-9 side wiepder, a heat-seeking missile a weapon normally fired at close range. we've just learned, shep, russia has now deployed a missile cruiser off the syrian coast ordering it to destroy any target that poses a danger to its forces. >> jennifer griffin at the pentagon. back to her as events warrant. nato holding what it is now calling an emergency extraordinary meeting after turkey shot down that russian plane. last month nato warned russia it was risking, quote, extreme danger by flying into turkish air space. let's bring in kurt voccer, a former u.s. ambassador to nato. the key here, sir, thanks for being here, is that the turkmen in the north of syria fight against the syrian leader bashar al assad, which means in essence in this proxy war they fight against the russians. and the turks just shot down this jet which flew, by all accounts over its air space maybe for a few seconds. what do you make of this in the big picture? >> well, i think that in the near term we're just going to see a little bit of hot rhetoric between russia and turkey over this incident. but a little further down the line, neither wn of them wants this to turn into a turkey/russia conflict. this is really about syria. here they still have differences, as you said. russia wants to support assad. turkey believes assad ais a big part of the problem. but what i think it will do is pull europe in. they have the isis attacks and lockdown in brussels. they're beginning to believe assad may not be the biggest problem, that isis is the real problem. if they can convince russia to go on the offensive against isis, i think you're going too see europe pull more toward the russian point of view. there may be coalescing of people wanting to fight isis over they'll differ to what happens to assad over time. >> i want to go back to motive f. you're turkey and you don't want escalation you don't do that unless you're trying to send a message or somebody made a mistake in communications along the way or something. that's just not what you do. >> right. well, this is not the first time russia has been violating air space and not only of turkey. thieve done this all over europe. finland, sweden, the uk, denmark, all over. in the case of turkey, this is a live fire situation. the russian forces are not there just flying around. they're dropping ordinances. they're targeting forces that we've supported that the turks have supported. and by clipping turkish air space repeatedly, which is what they've been doing, they are violating turkey's right to its own sovereignty, its own territory, and it has a right to self-defend. >> sure. >> the turks have warned them repeatedly. i think russia was just believing the turks were bluffing and i think the turks wanted to fire a shot in order to show, no, you can't use our airspace. i think after this russia will be more careful and things will stabilize. >> this is the part i want your insight on. that's unless they don't. unless some pilot does the same sort of thing and unless and until turkey does the same sort of thing and then should russia retaliate in some way, don't we then have a whole new world? >> there's always a danger of escalation. no question that things can happen. but i don't believe either side wants them to happen. that's critical. i don't think this is russia deliberately provoking turkey. i don't think it's turkey trying to say, we want to go to war with russia. they're just trying to make sure that these two military forces operating in very close proximity have clear lines between them. i think russian pilots are going to get the message to be more careful. i think here they were just lazy or cutting corners, and they just kcan't do that. >> in a situation like we've had in the beginning, mistakes can happen and with all these different militaries operating in the same sort of area, all with seemingly different ideas about what they want to accomplish here, we've now had a mistake and a shoot-down. another mistake, it would seem to me to be a much bigger mistake. >> i think if this were to continue, then you would see the risk of escalation of conflict directly with russia or between russia and turkey. but again, i think we have a very professional military in turkey, same with the united states force that's are there, and frankly russia increasingly professional as well. they know what they are dog, and they know what they have to do if they want to avoid coming into contact like that. so i think this is likely not to escalate. but as you say it's dangerous just because the fact they with forces in the same space involved in operations. >> kurt volcker, former u.s. ambassador to nato, sir. thank you. >> thank you. >> don't forget we've been reporting from the beginning and what the white house has been refusing to admit, and that is that we have a proxy war here, you know. the russians are fighting for assad. we are fighting against assad. that's a proxy war. they don't want to call it that for obvious reasons, but that's what it is. and mistakes are problematic. double mits tamistakes can be b problems. the french president at the white house today. he and president obama say assad's actions in syria are making things worse. that's coming up right after this from the fox news deck. breaking news now. this just in from a french official to reuters. french jets have just destroyed an islamic state command center at tell afar, which is west of mazonth muse mosul in iraq. that's brand-new. 11 days after the coordinated attack that killed 130 people across france, the french president came today to the white house to press for a strong and unified response. president obama told the french president francois hollande that the united states stands in total solidarity with france. but our commander in chief did not announce any major shifts in strategy. >> today president hollande and i agreed that our nations must do even more together. u.s. assistance has supported recent strikes in syria by france and we'll keep stepping up that coordination. >> before the meeting even began, a white house spoiksman said its outcome would probably be more symbolic than anything else. however, the french president did offer some specifics of what the two leaders discussed. >> translator: we therefore decided, president obama and3m" myself, to scale up strikes in syria and in iraq to broaden their scope, to share intelligence regarding targets. >> complicating that meeting today, of course, is the downing of that russian jet by turkey. that complicates everything on some level. both leaders agreed on one thing. the russian president vladimir putin's bombing runs in syria are make things worse. as putin continues to bomb areas where the islamic state is not. julie pace covers the white house for the associated press. she's live with us on the north lawn. julie, thank you. >> reporter: thanks for having me. >> in any sense of the level of concern there and what russia may do as retaliatory or not? >> reporter: this is a very high level of concern. you were talking earlier about a proxy war in syria and one of the concerns all along is that you have this really sprawling cast of countries and rebel groups fighting on the ground and in the air, and in some cases this is happening with pretty minimal coordination. so it was almost inevitable that you would have an incident like this. what you saw from obama and hollande today was a real effort to try to encourage russia to tamp down any of its rhetoric and any of its action in response to turkey because the prospect of russia and turkey, which is a nato partner, having an escalation over syria is really a nightmare scenario for everyone involved. >> anyone admitting to back channel talking to the turks on this matter? >> reporter: there's been some conversation between the u.s. and the turks about simply what happened earlier today. the president said he would likely talk to the turkish president. it's possible we'll have some communication from the u.s. officials to their russian counterparts. but right now it's a lot of effort to just figure out what exactly happened. >> and then on thursday, our thanksgiving, as it so happens, francois hollande to meet with vladimir putin over in i wonder if the white house is channeling any hopes or thoughts about that? >> reporter: what was interested today is we expected hollande to come to the white house and really push obama to align, cooperate with russia against the islamic state. but you actually saw a lot of solidarity between the u.s. and france on russia in particular. and this idea that while both countrs want russia to be a part of this coalition, fighting the islamic state, they feel like it's crucial that vladimir putin first acknowledged the fact that bashar assad has to leave power in syria, that he commits to a full political transition there. so they were really laying out standing side by side here today preconditions for russia joining this u.s.-led coalition. >> is there any noticeable and serious concern about what could happen over the thanksgiving weekend, or are they still saying nothing pointed, nothing direct, carry on, fear not? >> reporter: it's a little bit of both. i think that everyone just has a lot of questions today. there's this incident, as i said, really is everyone's worst-case scenario, and so you're going to see a lot of conversations going back and forth not just from the u.s. but also the french and other european partners to try to figure out what happened, try make sure that everyone keeps tensions down, that no one takes any, the russians in particular, real retaliatory steps because that would just take a situation that is already incredibly complex, incred blikrecredibly and just make it worse. >> julie, nice to see you. thank you. >> thank you. there's world al qaeda took out several key members of an islamic state militia during a suicide bombing. al qaeda working against the islamic state. we're just learning about it. it happened a week ago. according to an israeli reporter, the bombing came during a top level meeting of the isis militia. six of the group's top ten reportedly died. the reporter called it a quote severe blow unquote to the islamic state's top command in the area. al qaeda's syrian affiliate al nusra took credit. the isis militia controls part much the go lan heights. analysts say the two terror groups are in an all-out war despite having common enemies in parts of syria. ben carson is now backing off that claim that he saw muslims celebrating in new jersey by the thousands after the atakz of 9/11. something, by the way, which did not happen. he's now accusing reporters of having agenda when they asked him about it. it's the reporters' fault. we'll show you the video. you decide. that's next. who wants to try? before earning enough cash back from bank of america to stir up the holidays, before earning 1% cash back everywhere, every time and 2% back at the grocery store, even before they got 3% back on gas, all with no hoops to jump through, daniel, vandi, and sarah decided to use their bank americard cash rewards credit card to sweeten the holiday season. that's the spirit of rewarding connections. apply online or at a bank of america near you. twup minutes past the hour. ben carson now claims he was not talking about new jersey when he said he saw film of muslims celebrating in new jersey after the twin towers collapsed on 9/11. he told megyn kelly he was talking about muslims in general. >> i did see the film. i don't know where they were, but i did see a film of muslims celebrating. and i was making the point that that was inappropriate. i thought we were just talking about the fact that muslims were inappropriately celebrating. i didn't know they had an agenda behind the question. >> so rotors had an agenda when they asked the question and he didn't realize the question was about new jersey. here's the question and response, listen. >> dr. carson, were american-muslims in new jersey cheering on 9/11 when the towers fell? did you hear about that or see that? >> yes. i saw the film of it, yes. >> in new jersey. >> yes. >> in new jersey, yes. of course, donald trump started all of this, and he is sticking to his story about muslims celebrating in new jersey, something of which there is no evidence, no pictures of any kind of anyone in new jersey celebrating the attacks. none then. none now. none ever. that ed said, a new poll shows donald trump back on top and ben carson taking a dive in the first state with a presidential contest. shannon in d.c. has the new poll. >> the new numbers out of iowa specifically from polling of likely gop caucus participants. these are the hard-core folks. while donald trump stays atop the field at 25%, he is in a statistical dead heat with ted cruz when you factor in the margin of error. cruz sits at 23%, more than doubling the number he had in this same poll just a month ago, vaulting ahead of ben carson at 18% and rubio at 13%. there is good news for carson. he still maintains the highest favorability among the iowa caucusgoers. by the way, 23% of those surveyed say there is, quote, no way they would vote for trump. making him the most loved and hated candidate in the field. >> some other questions besides those, shannon, including voters -- candidates' ability to handle specific issues. >> yeah. here again trump is mostly at the top of the polling when it comes to the economy. he's viewed as the best equipped to handle that issue. nearly half of those surveyed back him on that with cruz a distant second at just 11%. trump is also viewed the best for handling terrorism taking 30%, followed by cruz and rubio. that result may be tied to trump's hard-line stance on syria refugees. in light of the fact this shows 80% of those surveyed oppose allowing them into the u.s. or into iowa. >> we shouldn't be taking any because we have no idea where they come from, who they are. they have no paperwork. there's no way of proving that their paperwork is correct. >> but the one place cruz tops trump is when folks were asked about foreign policy with 24% cruz comes in first, followed by trump, then rubio and then jeb bush. shep? >> shannon, thank you. the hunt continues for one of the suspects in the paris terror attack. there's word now that this man may have been headed for germany. now officials in belgium adding a possible accomplice to the list. it's all new and the details are coming. plus, the feds warning local law enforcement agencies to be ready for any potential homegrown terrorists. we'll speak with a former deputy assistant fbi director on what police can do to be prepared. [ male announcer ] eligible for medicare? that's a good thing, but it doesn't cover everything. only about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. so consider an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement insurance plans, they pick up some of what medicare doesn't pay and could save you in out-of-pocket medical costs. call today to request a free decision guide to help you better understand what medicare is all about and which aarp medicare supplement plan works best for you. with these types of plans, you'll be able to visit any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients. plus, there are no networks, and virtually no referrals needed. there's a range of plans to choose from, too, and they all travel with you anywhere in the country. join the millions who have already enrolled in the only medicare supplement insurance plans endorsed by aarp, an organization serving the needs of people 50 and over for generations... and provided by unitedhealthcare insurance company, which has over 30 years of experience behind it. ♪ call today. remember, medicare supplement insurance helps cover some of what medicare doesn't pay. expenses that could really add up. these kinds of plans could save you in out-of-pocket medical costs. you'll be able to choose any doctor who accepts medicare patients. and there are virtually no referrals needed. so don't wait.