Turkey’s Air Force on Sunday downed an unidentified drone on the Syrian border after it violated Turkish air space six times, the defence ministry said.
“An unmanned aerial vehicle which violated our air space six times (on Saturday)… was downed by two of our F-16s which took off from Incirlik” airbase in southern Turkey, the defence ministry said, sharing pictures of the downed drone.
The ministry said the source of the drone is to not known but said it was grounded at 1:24 pm local time.
“The wreck of the drone was found at the Cildiroba base” by the Turkish gendarmerie in the Kilis province near the Syrian border, the ministry said.
The Turkish air force shot down a Russian Su-24, Sukhoi aircraft, in the Turkey-Syria border area in 2015, escalating serious crisis between Moscow and Ankara.
That was condemned by Russian President Vladimir Putin as a “stab in the back” but the two countries later reunited and worked together on the Syrian crisis.
Turkey supports rebels seeking the withdrawal of President Bashar al-Assad while Moscow is one of the few remaining allies of the regime in Damascus.
