ANKARA: Turkey's defence ministry on Friday said a ballistic missile from Iran had been shot down in Turkish airspace by NATO forces in the third such incident of the Middle East war.
"A ballistic munition launched from Iran and entering Turkish airspace was neutralised by NATO air and missile defence assets deployed in the eastern Mediterranean," a ministry statement said.
Hours earlier, sirens wailed at Turkey's southern Incirlik airbase, a key NATO facility where US troops are stationed, state news agency Anadolu reported.
Local media also reported sirens in Batman, 600 kilometres (370 miles) further east.
NATO air defences shot down a first ballistic missile fired from Iran on March 4, with a second intercepted on Monday.
Residents of the southern city of Adana, next to Incirlik, were woken by sirens at 3:25 am (0025 GMT) and several posted footage of a fast-moving object that appeared to be on fire, the Ekonomim business news website reported.
According to defence news site SavunmaSanayiST, these objects could be "fragments of a third ballistic missile" or of the interceptor, which would have burned up upon entering the atmosphere before falling back to the ground.
Separately, sirens sounded in Batman around 4:00 am, with reporters saying the alarm appeared to be coming from a military drone base next to the city's airport. — AFP
