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Paramilitary troops found what they believed were
missile parts after residents in the Golbasi and
Mahmutlu villages in the southern province of Hatay
said that objects had rained down on their fields on
Friday after they heard an explosion in the sky.
The incident caused no injuries or material damage.
The Turkish foreign ministry said the Syrian
ambassador was summoned and asked to provide an
explanation Friday after a military investigation
and eyewitness accounts suggested that the parts
were that of a missile and came from Syrian
territory.
"Syria said in response that the incident occurred
due to a technical fault during military training
exercises, expressed the government's regret over
the unintentional incident caused by individual
error and apologised to the Turkish government," the
ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
Syrian authorities were taking measures to avoid a
repeat, it added.
"The incident in question is being evaluated in
detail," the statement said.
Earlier Saturday, the Turkish military had said that
that it suspected the objects in question may have
come from a missile originating in Syria.
Turkey and Syria share a long border, and Hatay,
which is claimed by Syria, is at its western end.
The two countries have greatly improved their stormy
ties since 1998, when they came to the brink of war
over accusations by Turkey that Syria was sheltering
separatist Kurdish militants fighting the Turkish
government.
The crisis was resolved when Syria expelled Kurdish
rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan and signed a security
deal with Turkey, pledging to stop supporting
Ocalan's Kurdistan Workers' Party, better known as
the PKK.
Despite the improved ties between the two countries,
two sticking points remain: the waters of the
Euphrates River, which has its source in Turkey, and
the status of Hatay.
AFP
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