Ankara has made the first admission that the drone shot down in Syria by a US F-16 was Turkish, despite initial denials. According to a statement released by the Turkish Foreign Ministry, the downing will not affect the anti-terrorism operations that Turkey has undertaken.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry attributed the downing to technical reasons, specifically to mechanisms to avoid engagement with “third parties”.

Ankara said one of its drones was “lost” during operations against Kurdish militants in northeastern Syria due to “different technical assessments” with third parties on the ground. It added that Ankara will continue to strike militant targets in Syria and Iraq.

The fact is that for the first time in NATO history, the US shot down a flying object belonging to its ally Turkey.

The downing was preceded by US warnings to Turkey’s Armed Forces, as the drone was flying armed in an area where its own ground forces (along with the Kurds) were operating. Given that there had been previous strikes with dead Kurds, the US deemed the danger to be real and the risk unacceptable, so it instructed the fighter aircraft overseeing the drone’s flight to shoot it down.

Intelligence and visuals from the area indicate that the Turkish drone was of the Anka type, the largest (but also the most expensive) drone of the Turkish forces. The U.S. aircraft was an F-16, Reuters reports, with some initial reports suggesting it was an F-35.

Turkey’s foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, had warned against third parties being near Kurds (known to be operating in northern Syria), who are for Ankara legitimate targets of the Turkish armed forces.

“I advise all third parties to move away from locations and persons linked to the PKK and the YPG,” the Turkish diplomatic chief had warned. In this context, yesterday’s downing can be “read” as a response from Washington.