The United States on Thursday voiced support for Turkey's inspection of a Syrian passenger plane allegedly carrying Russian-made munitions destined for Syria's defense ministry.

"We strongly support the government of Turkey's decision to inspect the plane," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters at a regular news briefing.

"We would be concerned by any effort to supply military equipment to the Assad regime because it's clearly being used by the regime against their own people," she said, adding "We look forward to hearing more from the Turkish side when they get to the bottom of what they found."

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said earlier in the day that the Syrian plane was forced to land in the Turkish capital of Ankara on Wednesday and was found to be carrying Russian-made munitions bound for the Syrian defense ministry.

Turkish authorities ordered the Syrian plane, traveling from Moscow to Damascus, to land late Wednesday over intelligence of " non-civilian cargo," press reports said.

Turkey issued on Thursday a diplomatic note to the Syrian consulate in Turkey's largest city of Istanbul over "violation of civil aviation rules" by the plane.

Nuland said that Washington will raise the issue with Moscow after having "a better sense" of what the Turks have found.

Turkey and Syria have been exchanging cross-border artillery fires for days following the killing of five Turkish civilians in a stray Syrian shelling last week.

Russia has denied that it is providing military supplies to the Syrian government, which has been battling the opposition forces since an outbreak of anti-government protests in March 2011 turned violent and bloody months later.

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