Russian air strikes that accidentally killed three Turkish soldiers in Syria were launched based on coordinates provided to Russia by the Turkish military, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.
“Unfortunately, our military, while carrying out strikes on terrorists, was guided by coordinates given to them by our Turkish partners, and Turkish servicemen should not have been present on those coordinates, and therefore these unintended strikes took place,” Peskov told a conference call with reporters.
“It was a lack of coordination in providing coordinates, that is how I would formulate it,” Peskov said.
The Turkish military said on Thursday that Russian air strikes had accidentally killed three Turkish soldiers during an operation against Islamic State in Syria, highlighting the risk of unintended clashes between the numerous outside powers in a complex war.