WASHINGTON, October 6. /TASS/. Pentagon Spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder confirmed on Thursday that US fighter jets had shot down a Turkish drone in the Syrian airspace.

"At approximately 7:30 [a.m.] local time in Syria today, our forces had observed UAVs conducting airstrikes in the vicinity of Hasakah, Syria. Some of those strikes were inside a declared US restricted operating zone, or ROC, near Hasakah. And it were approximately a kilometer away from US forces who relocated to bunkers. At approximately 11:30 [a.m.] local time, a Turkish UAV reentered the ROC, heading toward where US forces were located. US commanders assessed that the UAV, which was now less than half a kilometer from US forces, to be a potential threat, and US F-16 fighters subsequently shot down the UAV in self defense at approximately 11:40 [a.m.] local time," he said.

"It's important to point out that no US forces were injured during the incident. We have no indication that Turkey was intentionally targeting US forces. And, as I mentioned, the [Defense] Secretary did talk to his Turkish counterpart and reaffirmed our commitment to continue to closely coordinate," the Pentagon spokesman added.

Earlier, the incident in the Syrian airspace was reported by The Washington Post newspaper. According to its sources, US commanders were aware that the drone belonged to Turkey when they made the decision to shoot it down. The newspaper said that the incident may affect the relations between the two states, already strained by the US strategy in Syria, Washington’s decision to exclude Ankara from its program to build F-35 fifth-generation fighter jets and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s decision to maintain contacts with Moscow.