US shoots down armed Turkish drone over Syria, Pentagon says
The United States has shot down an armed Turkish drone operating near its troops in Syria, the Pentagon said.
It was the first time Washington has brought down an aircraft of NATO ally Turkey.
Turkish drones had been seen carrying out airstrikes in Hasakah in Syria on Thursday morning in a so-called American “restricted operating zone” around 1km away from US troops, Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Pat Ryder said.
Later a Turkish drone reentered the restricted area “on a heading toward where US forces were located”.
The drone came within less than 500m of US troops and was deemed a threat and shot down by F-16 aircraft.
Brig Gen Ryder called it a “regrettable incident” and said US troops were forced to go to bunkers for safety when Turkey bombed targets nearby.
No US soldiers were injured.
US defence secretary Lloyd Austin had a “fruitful” call with his Turkish counterpart after the incident, he added.
“The decision was made out of due diligence and the inherent right of self-defence to take appropriate action to protect US forces,” Brig Gen Ryder said, adding: “We have no indication that Turkey was intentionally targeting US forces.”
The US and Turkish militaries, which are NATO allies, typically work in close coordination in conducting air manoeuvres, but American troops also work closely with Kurdish forces to counter Islamic State insurgents in the region.
The US has around 900 troops in Syria conducting missions to counter Islamic State militants.
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Tensions have flared between the two countries before, with US troops in northern Syria coming under artillery fire from Turkish positions in 2019.
US support for Kurdish forces in northern Syria has long caused tensions with Ankara, which views them as a wing of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the group which claimed responsibility for a bomb attack in the capital last weekend.
It comes after Turkey carried out airstrikes in northern Iraq, destroying 20 targets belonging to the PKK.
An American Airlines flight travelling from New York to New Delhi was diverted midair due to a “bomb threat”.
Flight 292 landed at Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci Rome Fiumicino Airport “due to a possible security issue,” the airline said in a statement on Sunday, adding later the threat “was determined to be non-credible”.
The airline did not clarify what the security issue was, but a source familiar with the situation told Sky News’ US partner network NBC News it was a bomb threat sent via email.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the crew reported the security issue.
“Safety and security are our top priorities, and we apologise to our customers for the inconvenience,” the airline said in a statement.
The view from the cockpit of the fighter jet. Pic: Italian air force/Reuters
Pic: Italian air force/Reuters
The flight requested a diversion to Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci Rome Fiumicino Airport at around 2pm local time, Roberto Rao, a spokesperson for the airport.
“We immediately agreed and organised a safe landing,” Mr Rao told NBC News.
“We don’t know what the security concern was, but my opinion is that it was serious enough to divert the plane, but not urgent, because we received the alert when the plane was over the Caspian Sea, a three hours’ flight from Rome.”
Once in Italian airspace, the plane was escorted by two Italian air force fighter jets and landed in Rome at around 5.30pm local time.
The flight on the ground in Rome. Pic: AP
‘What’s going on here?’
Neeraj Chopra, one of the 199 passengers on board, said the captain announced the plane had to turn around about three hours before it was supposed to land in New Delhi because of a change in “security status”.
Mr Chopra, who was traveling to India to visit family, described the mood on board as calm until the captain later announced that fighter jets would be escorting their plane to Rome.
“I felt a little panic of, okay, what’s going on here?” Mr Chopra told the Associated Press. “There’s got to be like something bigger going on here.”
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Jonathan Bacon, 22, added that once on the ground, all passengers were loaded on to buses and taken to the terminal, where each passenger and their personal items underwent additional security screenings that were time-consuming and felt “slightly heightened”.
More than two hours after landing, Mr Bacon and his friend said they were still waiting for their checked baggage. “It was definitely the longest flight to Europe I’ve ever taken,” he said.
American Airlines said the plane was inspected and cleared to depart again for New Delhi “as soon as possible” on Monday, after the crew gets some rest.
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