Turkey’s Incirlik is a major airbase used by the US military and other NATO forces. [Getty]
Turkey’s defence ministry on Friday said a ballistic missile from Iran had been shot down in Turkish airspace by NATO defences, in the third such incident in just over a week.
“A ballistic munition launched from Iran and entering Turkish airspace was neutralised by NATO air and missile defence assets deployed in the Eastern Mediterranean,” a ministry statement said.
Sirens wailed early on Friday at Turkey’s Incirlik airbase, a key NATO facility where US troops are stationed near the southern city of Adana, state news agency Anadolu reported earlier.
Residents of Adana, which lies 10 kilometres (six miles) from the base, were woken up at 3:25 am (0025 GMT) by sirens, which sounded for around five minutes, according to the Ekonomim business news website.
It said a red alert sounded at the base.
Several people posted mobile phone footage on social media of a fast-moving object that appeared to be on fire moving through the night sky as police and ambulance sirens wailed through the streets, it said.
Defence news platform SavunmaSanayiST said the objects were “believed to be fragments from a third ballistic missile” or from the interceptor, which had entered the atmosphere and burnt up before falling to the ground.
NATO had on Monday confirmed shooting down a second ballistic missile fired from Iran, prompting Ankara to warn Tehran against “provocative steps”.
The announcement came shortly after Washington said it was closing down its consulate in Adana, urging all American citizens to leave southeastern Turkey.
Later that day, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian phoned Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan and denied the missile had been fired from Iran.
US troops at two Turkish bases
Since the US-Israeli war against Iran started, Tehran has launched strikes across the Middle East. Turkey had appeared to have been spared.
The Incirlik air base is an important NATO facility that has been used by US troops for decades, but which also hosts military personnel, including from Spain and Poland, the base’s official website says.
US troops are also stationed at Kurecik, another Turkish base in the central Malatya province which houses an early-warning radar system that NATO describes as a “key element” of its missile shield, and which can detect Iranian missile launches.
Although Ankara has categorically denied that the radar data has ever been used to help Israel, its presence has rattled Tehran.
On Tuesday, Turkey said a Patriot missile defence system was being deployed in Malatya as NATO “strengthened its air and missile defence measures”.
NATO shot down a first missile on 4 March, saying it had identified the launch, confirmed its trajectory and intercepted the threat “in less than 10 minutes”. A day later, it said it had strengthened its “alliance-wide ballistic missile defence posture” without giving details.
The Incirlik and Kurecik bases are a deeply sensitive issue for Turkey, with police arresting three journalists for “national security offences” over footage filmed near Incirlik just hours after the war began on 28 February.
(AFP)
