Türkiye's military "neutralized" 26 Kurdish militants in northern Syria overnight in retaliation for a rocket attack on a Turkish base, the defense ministry said on Friday as conflict escalated nearly a week after a bomb attack in Ankara.
The rocket attack on the base, by the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, killed one Turkish police officer and wounded seven officers and soldiers in northwest Syria's Dabiq area on Thursday evening, Ankara said, Reuters reported.
The defense ministry said Türkiye separately conducted air strikes and destroyed 30 militant targets elsewhere in northern Syria, including an oil well, a storage facility and shelters.
Underscoring the tension, the Pentagon said the United States had on Thursday shot down an armed Turkish drone that was operating near its troops in Syria, the first time Washington has brought down an aircraft of NATO ally Türkiye.
A Pentagon spokesman said Turkish drones were seen carrying out airstrikes in Hasakah, northeast Syria, and one drone came within less than a half a kilometre (0.3 miles) of US troops, was deemed a threat and shot down by F-16 aircraft.
A Turkish defense ministry official said the drone did not belong to the Turkish armed forces. However, a security source said Türkiye's National Intelligence Agency (MIT) had carried out strikes in Syria against Kurdish militant targets.
Ankara said on Thursday a ground operation into Syria was one option it could consider. Türkiye has mounted several previous incursions into northern Syria against the YPG.
