The US yesterday shot down an armed Turkish drone that was operating near its troops in Syria, the Pentagon said, the first time Washington has brought down an aircraft of Nato ally Türkiye.
A Turkish defence ministry official said the drone that was shot down did not belong to the Turkish armed forces, but did not say whose property it was.
Türkiye’s National Intelligence Agency carried out strikes in Syria against Kurdish militant targets after a bomb attack in Ankara last weekend, a Turkish security source said yesterday.
Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Pat Ryder said Turkish drones had been seen carrying out airstrikes on Hasakah, Syria yesterday morning about 1km away from US troops.
A few hours later a Turkish drone came within less than half-a-kilometre of US troops and was deemed a threat and shot down by F-16 aircraft.
“We have no indication that Türkiye was intentionally targeting US forces,” Ryder told reporters.
US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with his Turkish counterpart after the incident, a call Ryder said was “fruitful”.
The incident comes at a delicate moment for US-Turkish relations, with the United States hoping Türkiye will ratify Nato membership for Sweden.
While the United States has not shot down a Turkish aircraft before, tensions have flared and there have been close calls. In 2019, US troops in northern Syria came under artillery fire from Turkish positions.
US-allied Syrian Kurdish forces said Turkish attacks had killed eight people in an escalation prompted by the bomb attack in Ankara by Kurdish militants.
US support for Kurdish forces in northern Syria has long caused tension with Türkiye, which views them as a wing of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). That group claimed responsibility for Sunday’s attack in Ankara near government buildings.
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