Turkey shoots down drone at border with Syria

Published 10:11 am Friday, October 16, 2015

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish jets shot down an unidentified drone that flew into Turkey’s airspace at the border with Syria Friday, an incident that comes as Syrian troops under Russian air cover are pressing their offensive against rebels in central and northern Syria.

The drone was shot down after it ignored three warnings to leave, the Turkish military said, but didn’t specify how it had relayed the warnings to the operators of the drone. It said it was not immediately clear which country the aircraft belonged to.

Turkish Foreign Minister Feridun Sinirlioglu said the drone crashed 3 kilometers (about two miles) inside Turkish territory. “We have not been able to establish who the drone belongs to, but we are able to work on it because it fell inside Turkish territory,” he said.

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Turkey earlier this month had complained about two incursions by Russian warplanes, which also drew strong condemnation from Turkey’s NATO allies.

The United States, Russia and the Syrian government all operate drones in the region.

Russia strongly denied ownership of the drone.

“I state with absolute responsibility that all our drones are either performing tasks or staying at the base,” Col.-Gen. Andrei Kartapolov of the Russian military’s General Staff said at a meeting with foreign military attaches in Moscow.

The Lebanon-based pro-Syrian Al-Mayadeen TV quoted an unnamed Syrian military official as saying that no Syrian or Russian warplane or drone was shot down over Turkey. The official added that Syrian or Russian warplanes or drones did not violate Turkey’s airspace.

There was no immediate comment on the drone by the U.S. Embassy in Ankara.

Seeking to soothe Turkey’s anger about the violation of its airspace by Russian aircraft, Moscow sent a high-level military delegation to discuss moves to prevent such incidents in the future.

“They apologized a few times, said it happened by accident and that they have taken measures so that it will not occur again,” Sinirlioglu said of Thursday’s talks in Ankara with the visiting Russian military delegation.