US F-16 downs Turkish drone near US troops in Syria
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Two US officials said on Thursday that a US F-16 fighter aircraft successfully destroyed a Turkish drone in close proximity to US forces stationed in Syria.
The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that the US had made several calls to Turkish officials warning them that they were operating near US ground troops.
Spokesperson of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) Farhad Shami told Al-Monitor, “We confirm that one UAV was shot down.”
For his part, Salih Muslim, co-chair of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the largest Kurdish party in northeast Syria, told Al-Monitor that a drone had been shot down near the village of Tell Beydar, 30 kilometers northeast of the city of Hasakah, northeast Syria.
Muslim said it was unclear whether the US-led Global Coalition that has a base in Tell Beydar or local forces had downed the drone.
“If the coalition did shoot it down, it was to warn Turkey that it had gone too far and was imperiling their forces,” Muslim said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) also said that the Turkish drone had been downed.
However, Turkish Defense Ministry sources denied the claim to Turkish media outlets, saying no drones belonging to the Turkish military had been downed.
Turkey has been carrying out drone strikes since early Thursday following a statement by Turkey’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hakan Fidan, in which he threatened to strike a broader range of targets in Syria and Iraq in retaliation for the Ankara attack.
On Oct. 1, two individuals carried out a bomb attack in front of the building of the Ministry of Interior in Ankara injuring two police officers.
On Wednesday, Fidan claimed that the two assailants who carried out the attack had been trained in Syria. “From now on, all infrastructure, large facilities and energy facilities belonging to (armed Kurdish groups) in Iraq and Syria are legitimate targets for our security forces,” he threatened.