Officials say US downed Turkish drone after allies targeted
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This file photo shows a Turkish Air Force F-16 fighter jet.
Officials say the US shot down an armed Turkish drone operating near its troops in Syria, the first time Washington has brought down an aircraft of NATO ally.
The alleged downing on Thursday came as a series of Turkish strikes on US-allied Kurdish militant targets killed at least nine people in northeastern Syria.
A Turkish Defense Ministry official said the drone shot down by the US did not belong to the Turkish armed forces but did not say whose property it was.
Turkey's National Intelligence Agency carried out strikes in Syria against the Syrian Kurdish YPG group after a bomb attack in Ankara last weekend, a Turkish security source said on Thursday.
Two unnamed US officials, quoted by Reuters news agency, said an F-16 shot down the Turkish drone after the United States called Turkish military officials multiple times to warn them they were operating close to US ground forces. The officials said the Turkish drone was believed to be armed.
The shootdown is likely to add to the tensions between Turkey and US, NATO allies, over the American military strategy in Syria, the US ejection of Turkey from the advanced F-35 jet fighter program, and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ties with Moscow.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is expected to speak to Turkish officials, a US official said.
Erdogan dropped his opposition in July to Sweden’s bid to join NATO after talking with President Biden. But Erdogan’s decision still must be approved by Turkey’s parliament and the Turkish president said last month, according to Turkish media, that final approval would be contingent on the US sale of F-16 jet fighters.
US support for Kurdish militants in northern Syria has long caused tension with Turkey, which views them as a wing of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) - the group which claimed Sunday's attack in Ankara near government buildings.
Ankara said on Wednesday the two attackers had come from Syria. The bombing killed both attackers and wounded two police officers.
ME
