The Pentagon called the Thursday morning incident “regrettable” but said it was an accident on the Turkish side.
The armed Turkish drone was about half-a-mile away from a U.S. base, forcing troops to take cover, before American F-16s shot it out of the sky.
No U.S. troops were injured, yet the incident immediately raised concerns in Washington.
Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder called it a “regrettable” mishap.
“We have no indication that Turkey was intentionally targeting U.S. forces,” Ryder said at a briefing.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin quickly called his counterpart, as did Gen. Charles Brown, the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The Pentagon press secretary said those conversations went well and the defense leaders emerged with a consensus to communicate more closely and ensure troops are out of harm’s way during missions.
“Turkey does remain a very important and valuable NATO ally,” Ryder added.
The U.S. military was forced to take out the drone after more than a dozen calls to Turkish military officials.
The U.S., which has about 900 troops in Syria for counterterrorism operations, usually coordinates closely with Turkish forces in the country who work to combat Kurdish militants.
State-run media outlet Anadolu Agency reported Thursday that Turkey carried out an operation against weapons warehouses of Kurdish militia groups in Syria. Ankara has otherwise not commented on the incident.
