Turkey downs suspected Russian drone

Moscow strongly denies it owned unmanned plane

Turkish jets shot down an unidentified drone that flew into Turkey’s airspace at the border with Syria Friday while Syrian troops under Russian air cover were pressing their offensive against rebels in central and northern Syria. A U. S. official said the drone was Russian, but Moscow strongly denied ownership.

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.

Turkish Foreign Minister Feridun Sinirlioglu said the drone crashed three kilometres 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.

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.

The drone was definitely not American, and the U. S. believes it was Russian, said a U. S. defence official, who was not authorized to discuss details of the incident and so spoke on condition of anonymity.

In Moscow, a senior military officer strongly denied that the drone was Russian. “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.

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.

Since 2013, Turkey has shot down a Syrian military jet, a helicopter and an unmanned surveillance drone that strayed into Turkish airspace.