Turkey takes preventive measures to avoid friendly fire with Russia in Syria

Turkey has introduced fresh measures to prevent operational mishaps in Syria after Russia inadvertently killed three Turkish troops with a strike on a position near al-Bab on Feb. 9, by imposing 24-hour patrols over the airspace between the Turkish border and al-Bab and by instructing its warplanes to conduct flights in parallel with Russian jets.

Daily Hürriyet, meanwhile, has also obtained additional information as to how the Feb. 9 incident occurred.

According to the information gathered by Hürriyet, the Turkish Air Force has imposed two measures after the incident on Feb. 9. First, in a bid to avoid a similar incident, Turkish warplanes have been instructed to fly in parallel with Russian warplanes in Syrian airspace. Additionally, many Russian warplanes had to return to their bases in Hmeimim after the Turkish intervention in the aftermath of the incident, but this measure was temporary and is no longer being implemented. 

The other and more permanent measure concerns 24-hour patrols over the air space between the Turkish border and al-Bab in a bid to monitor the region and stop similar inadvertent attacks by other countries' warplanes.

'Syrian regime misled Russians'

According to a Turkish Armed Force (TSK) statement on Feb. 10, Turkey informed Russia on Feb. 8 through a recently established hot line between the former's Eskişehir military base and the latter's airbase in Hmeimim that the Syrian army had fired a rocket at the area in which Turkish troops had been located. 

The information, whose records were also given to Russian authorities again after the attack on Feb. 9, included updated coordinates of the Turkish positions near al-Bab with a clear demand that the Syrian army should...