Turkey shoots down drone near Syria border

ANKARA, Sept 30 (Xinhua): Turkish army on Sunday shot down a drone that violated Turkish airspace for six times, the country's Defense Ministry said.

Two Turkish F-16 fighter jets had tracked down the drone after its repeated violations of Turkish airspace, but which country the drone belonged to could not be immediately determined, said the ministry in a written statement.

The violations occurred in the operation center of Operation Euphrates Shield and the southern province of Kilis, read the statement, noting that the wreck of the drone was found in Kilis between a military base and a temporary sheltering center for refugees.

In 2018, Turkey launched an air and ground offensive against the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia that Ankara considers as a terrorist group in Afrin in northern Syria.

The main objective is to clear the Kurdish forces from its 900-km-long border with Syria.

The operation, dubbed Olive Branch, follows Turkey's Operation Euphrates Shield in Syria against the YPG and the Islamic State extremist group.