Moscow and Ankara agree that the outcome of the airstrike, which killed three Turkish soldiers and injured 11 others in northern Syria on Thursday, was not deliberate and was due to miscommunication on the positioning data, Russian presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.
“As for the reasons [of this incident], they are unfortunately clear. There’s no controversy. The situation is evident: our military was following the data sent by our Turkish partners, and there shouldn’t have been any Turkish troops within the limits of these coordinates,” the Kremlin spokesman said.
Asked if there was a mistake on the part of Turkish intelligence, Peskov reiterated that there was a “miscommunication in providing the data.”
READ MORE: 3 Turkish soldiers accidentally killed in Russian airstrike in Syria, Moscow confirms
Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed that the airstrike had killed the Turkish soldiers on Thursday.
The Turkish command said that the airstrike had hit a building housing Turkish soldiers in the city of Al-Bab at 8:40am local time.
The airstrike was targeting Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) forces in the area, the head of the Russian Staff, Valery Gerasimov, said in a statement.
The Turkish military said that it was satisfied with the actions and statements made by the Russian authorities, TASS reported, citing a source in the Turkish General Staff.
