Turkey has asked Israel for clarification after finding two fuel tanks on its territory near the Syrian border allegedly belonging to Israeli warplanes, a diplomatic source said on Saturday.
Turkey's top-selling Hurriyet newspaper carried photographs on Saturday of what it said were fuel tanks jettisoned by Israeli F-151s sent to gather intelligence on Syrian installations near the Turkish border.
The jettisoned fuel tanks were discovered late on Thursday in the Turkish provinces of Hatay and Gaziantep, near the Syrian border, hours after Damascus had accused Israel of bombing its territory. Israel has declined to comment on Syria's charge.
"We have asked Israel to explain what happened," a Turkish diplomatic source said.
The source said Turkish authorities were also trying to establish whether Israeli warplanes had briefly violated Turkey's airspace. In Jerusalem, Israel's Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the matter.
The Hurriyet report cited unnamed "experts" as saying they believed the Israeli warplanes had jettisoned extra fuel tanks in order to escape more swiftly after Syria targeted them.
A Western diplomat speaking in Damascus on Thursday offered a similar explanation of what had occurred.
Witnesses in the area of Tal al-Abiad near the Turkish border where the reported bombing happened also said they spotted several fuel tanks.
Syria says the alleged Israeli bombing caused no casualties or damage.
Syria's foreign minister will arrive in Ankara for pre-planned talks today with his Turkish counterpart. Turkey will raise the Israeli warplane issue, diplomats say.
Muslim but secular Turkey is one of the few countries in the region to maintain strong commercial and security ties with Israel. The Israeli and Turkish armed forces sometimes hold joint military exercises, most recently in August.
The incident has raised questions about why Israel would want to heighten tensions with its enemy to the north. Experts have speculated Israel might have been seeking information about long-range missiles pointed at Israel, testing Syrian air defense, or trying out a possible air route to its archenemy Iran.
Source: China Daily/agencies
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