MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Putin on Thursday informed the Russian Security Council meeting participants about his conversation with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan and discussed the Syrian settlement with them, Peskov said.
"President Putin informed the meeting participants about the recent telephone conversation with Turkish President Erdogan, said in particular that he expressed condolences to his Turkish counterpart over the fact that early this morning Turkish soldiers had been killed as a result of lack of coordination of coordinates during Russian Aerospace Forces' airstrikes on terrorists during a joint operation to liberate al-Bab," Peskov said.
Earlier in the day, the Kremlin spokesman confirmed to Sputnik that Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed condolences to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan over an accidental Russian airstrike that had killed Turkish soldiers in Syria. Peskov said that Russia and Turkey will jointly investigate the deadly incident.
Earlier in the day, the Turkish General Staff said that an accidental Russian airstrike killed three Turkish soldiers and wounded 11 others in northern Syria.
The Russian Defense Ministry has also confirmed the unintentional strike, killing Turkish servicemen in Syria. The ministry said that Russian bombers had been on a mission to destroy Daesh terrorists' positions near al-Bab, where Turkish soldiers had been accidentally bombed.
The news comes as the Turkish military operation in Syria's al-Bab has entered the final stage. Turkey's units entered central al-Bab, the operation is being conducted in coordination with Russia to prevent clashes with Syrian government forces.
Russian and Turkish military jets have repeatedly jointly bombed Daesh targets near al-Bab in Syria. Al-Bab is one of Daesh’s last remaining strongholds near the Turkish border. Capturing the city is of strategic importance to Turkey in order to prevent the Syrian Kurds taking it and unifying their own territories.
