The president of Russia sent his condolences on Thursday to his Turkish counterpart for the death of Turkish soldiers during a Russian airstrike in Syria.
Russian president Vladimir Putin telephoned his counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan to convey his regrets and explain how the incident where a combat aircraft killed three and wounded 11 Turkish troops in northern Syria.
The incident occurred "this morning due to a Russian air force internal coordination breakdown at the time of establishing the coordinates to execute an airstrike against terrorists," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists.
The Turkish military died "during a joint operation aimed to liberate al-Bab" the Syrian village occupied by the Islamic State terror organization, Putin said according to Peskov.
The conversation between both leaders took place not long after the Russian General Staff acknowledged that three Turkish military had died during an "unintended" Russian airstrike in Syria, according to official Turkish sources.
Both parts decided to "improve the coordination mechanisms within the combined operations that are fighting terrorist forces in Syria."
Rusia and Turkey have experienced a similar incident when, in Nov. 2015, a Russian fighter-bomber was shot down by a Turkish fighter very close to the Turkish-Syrian border, which provoked a cooling of diplomatic relations between both countries.
Putin and Erdogan reconciled themselves in Aug. during a Moscow summit after the Turkish leader apologized for the downing of the Russian aircraft, that killed one of its two crew members.
There was also the incident of the Russian ambassador in Turkey, Andrei Karlov, gunned down in December while attending a photographic exhibition in Ankara.
Nonetheless, in early 2017, Turks and Russians began joint military operations against the extremist groups in Syria and brokered the Astana (Kazakstan) peace talks between the Syrian government and opposition forces.
Source: EFE
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