Talks follow downing of armed Turkish drone by US fighter plane in Syria

The highest-ranking diplomats from the US and Turkey talked on the phone after American soldiers in Syria shot down a Turkish drone with weapons.

Washington said that the drone came too close to their soldiers on the ground in Syria, but Ankara only mentioned that the drone was lost during their operations.

During the conversation between Nato allies, Hakan Fidan informed the US that Turkey will continue to focus on Kurdish groups.

The US cooperates with Kurdish YPG forces in Syria. However, Turkey sees them as people who want to separate from their country and sees them as terrorists.

Mr Fidan informed the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, that Turkey will firmly continue its efforts to fight against terrorism in Iraq and Syria.

A spokesperson from the US State Department said that Mr. Blinken emphasized the importance of the US and Turkey working together and minimizing conflicts in their actions.

On Thursday, the US military said that they shot down a Turkish drone with a US fighter jet. The drone was armed and was flying near American soldiers in Syria. The US gave warnings before taking action.

A spokesperson for the Pentagon, Brigadier General Patrick Ryder, told reporters that American forces saw a few drones bombing an area in north-east Syria at 07:30 local time (04:30 GMT).

According to Ryder, a few of the strikes happened about 1km away from the US troops, which made them find shelter in bunkers.

Four hours later, the F-16 shot down the drone because the commanders believed it could be dangerous.

“It’s unfortunate when two countries in the NATO alliance have a situation like this,” he told the reporters.

This was the first time something like this happened between the two countries that are part of Nato.

There are around 900 American soldiers in Syria fighting against a terrorist group called Islamic State (IS).

Turkey is attacking Kurdish groups in Syria and Iraq because there was a bomb that hurt their interior ministry in Ankara.

The PKK said that a group connected to them was responsible for the bombing at the interior ministry.

The PKK is seen as a terrorist organization in Turkey, the European Union, United Kingdom, and United States.

Turkey sees the PKK and the YPG as one group. But the US has been working with the YPG, a group that is part of the US-supported Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and has been fighting against IS in Syria.

Not long after Mr Blinken and Mr Fidan talked on the phone, Turkey announced that it had started attacking Kurdish targets in northern Syria again.

The Turkish defense ministry said it attacked 15 places belonging to the Kurdish group with a lot of ammunition. These places included headquarters and shelters.

The PKK started a fight against the Turkish government in 1984, asking for their own country for the Kurdish people inside Turkey.

In the 1990s, the PKK changed its stance from wanting their own country to wanting more self-control for the Kurdish people. Over 40,000 people have passed away in the war.

There was more fighting that started again after a two-year period without fighting ended in July 2015.