US F-16 Shoots Down Turkish Drone Over Syria

US warplanes on Thursday shot down a Turkish drone that was deemed a menace to American forces in Syria, the Pentagon stated — an incident more likely to elevate tensions between the NATO allies.

The shootdown got here as Turkey focused Kurdish forces in Syria following a suicide bombing in Ankara that was claimed by the Kurdistan Staff’ Occasion (PKK).

US troops noticed drones finishing up strikes early Thursday, a few of them inside a “restricted working zone” (ROZ) close to Hasakeh, a few kilometer (lower than a mile) from American troops, Pentagon spokesman Brigadier Common Pat Ryder advised journalists.

A number of hours later, a Turkish drone returned to the ROZ and flew towards American forces regardless of what a US official stated have been a dozen calls to Ankara’s army.

Ryder stated “US commanders assessed… the UAV, which was now lower than a half kilometer from US forces, to be a possible menace,” utilizing an abbreviation for unmanned aerial automobile.

“US F-16 fighters subsequently shot down the UAV in self-defense,” he stated.

Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke together with his Turkish counterpart Yasar Guler on Thursday, urging “de-escalation in northern Syria and the significance of sustaining strict adherence to de-confliction protocols and communication by established military-to-military channels,” Ryder stated in a press release.

Turkey’s protection ministry confirmed the decision, saying the 2 officers mentioned “the newest developments in Syria.”

The USA has roughly 900 troops deployed in Syria as a part of worldwide efforts to fight the Islamic State (IS) group, and carries out frequent raids focusing on the jihadists.

Harmful Combine

US forces are partnered with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which led the struggle that dislodged IS fighters from the final territory they held within the nation in 2019.

However Turkey views the Kurdish Individuals’s Safety Items that dominate the SDF as an offshoot of the PKK, which is taken into account a terror group by Ankara and its Western allies.

Whereas Turkey recurrently carries out drone assaults within the semi-autonomous Kurdish area in northeast Syria, it warned of extra intense cross-border air raids after concluding the militants who staged the Ankara bombing got here from that nation.

Turkish strikes on army and infrastructure targets in Kurdish-held areas of Syria killed at the very least 9 individuals on Thursday, in accordance with Kurdish safety forces.

Syria accommodates a harmful mixture of usually antagonistic forces working on the bottom and within the air, together with these from President Bashar al-Assad‘s authorities, Russia, the US, Turkey, Iran-linked teams, the Kurds, and jihadist organizations.

Turkey has shot down each Syrian and Russian planes up to now, whereas the US extra just lately accused Moscow’s forces of repeatedly harassing its plane over Syria.

In July, Washington stated a Russian fighter plane dropped flares above an American drone because it took half in an anti-IS mission, damaging its propeller.

That incident adopted others through which the US stated Russian planes harassed a manned American reconnaissance aircraft in addition to MQ-9 drones.