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The Iraqi military announced on August 29 that it had shot down a Turkish combat drone over the northern city of Kirkuk.
“A Turkish drone which penetrated Iraqi airspace has been shot down,” the deputy air defense commander for Kirkuk, General Abdel Salam Ramadan, told a press conference at the site of the downing.
The drone had come “from the direction of Sulaimaniyah,” the second largest city of the Kurdish autonomous region to the north, Ramadan said.
Falling debris from the interception damaged a house in the city center. However, there were no reports of any direct casualties.
The downed drone was later identified as a Turkish Aerospace Industries’ Aksungur, one of the largest models currently in service with the Turkish military.
The Aksungur was first introduced into service in 2021. The drone has an operational range of 6,500 kilometers and an endurance of up to 49 hours. It can be armed with a wide range of weapons, including precision-guided glide bombs with a stand-off range.
Videos posted to social networks indicate that the drone was shot down over Kirkuk by a Russian-made Pantsir-S short-range air defense system with a single missile.
Russia delivered at least 24 Pantsir-S systems to Iraq by 2016. These systems make up the bulk of the country’s small air defense network. Iraqi plans to acquire more Pantsir-S and other types of air defense systems are yet to materialize due to financial and political obstacles.
The Pantsir-S, which is armed with missiles and guns with a top engagement range of 15 kilometers, has proven its worth against Turkish-made drones more than once in the last few years, from Libya to Syria, Armenia and Ukraine.
It’s worth noting that the Turkish military expanded its operations against the PKK in Kurdistan in recent months. However, this didn’t lead to any tensions with Iraq. The downing of the drone over Kirkuk will not likely cause a crisis, although it reveals disagreements between the two countries.
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turkey should only fly military drones over its own territory this terrorist behavior of the turkish state will no longer be tolerated.
as a real magilla inferior in bird land i like gay drone
it is also noteworthy that the turks have built an ada class corvette for the ukrainian navy now in sea trials.
ukraine hasn’t paid yet and they haven’t been delivered yet. but i get your point that turkey wants to sit on multiple chairs and remain relevant in a fast changing world.
nato continues to erase every one of little vlad’s “red lines”…heheheh…russia is getting bitch-slapped by turkey now…
vlad is drawing lines on your face, moron.. your lying deceiving brain is lying to you. you have less than zero chance.
you have to understand that russia can only respond once to these so-called red lines and when it does every single nato country including the united states will be destroyed. if you ever wondered what western scientist meant when they were talking about man-made climate change in the next decade think global nuclear holocaust. so be quiet little worm you don’t want that smoke.
turkey is living up to its avian name.
turks just hunt for terrorist pkk/ypg. why on earth would iraq be angry over turkey killing allies of israel and usa? they should bomb us bases in iraq instead. turkey is not enemy of iraq, or russia.
don’t forget turkey is nato, and never trust them. they always play a double game: backstabbing syria, speaking loudly about iskhael while providing them with oil & gas, pretending to go after “terrorists” while funding and arming daesh and other terror groups… turdogan is a slimy bstard of the lowest kind
hungary is also in nato, but ally of russia. bulgaria is also in nato and on russian side. turkey is the country europe and us would want to kick out of nato but they cant.
before mocking erdogan you must understand that any turkish president other than him would be worse for russia. erdogan is semi ally of iran and russia and helped russia to evade sanctions as much as he could.
“in nato, but ally of russia” lol and do you still believe in santa?
pantsir 30km range and 15.000 mts alttitude, in armenia war no pantsir were used,
armenian leadership chose to turn their back on russia… then came crying russia didnt help them.
note: i’m pro-armenian, but apparently armenian leaders aren’t
these systems should be in gaza and lebanon.
erdogan veut recréer l’empire ottoman. l’état sioniste est sur les anciennes terres de l’empire ottoman. l’otan est une coalition de ceux qui ont détruit l’empire ottoman. l’iran existe depuis des millénaires avant même l’empire ottoman et n’a jamais été colonisé par l’empire ottoman.
(…) a cela, l’iran ne fait pas partie de l’otan et n’est pas le meilleur ami de l’état sioniste. alors, pourquoi erdogan provoque t-il ses semblables musulmans ? ne comprend t-il rien à l’histoire qu’il revendique ou est-il un collaborateur des extrémistes apatrides ?
désolé, le sujet est l’irak et non l’iran.
turkey is nothing but us/nato agent in middle east. most reliable ally of zionist israel. just like jordan, egypt and saudi. talking one thing and doing exactly opposit.