Erdogan promises 'necessary action' after Turkish drone shot down

Turkey will retaliate for the shooting down of an armed Turkish drone by the United States in northern Syria, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday in a news conference following a cabinet meeting.

"There is no doubt that the incident has been engraved in our national memory and necessary action will certainly be taken when the time comes," he said.

The United States on Thursday shot down an armed Turkish drone that was operating near its troops in Syria, the Pentagon said, the first time Washington has brought down an aircraft of NATO ally Turkey.

A Turkish defense ministry official said the drone that was shot down did not belong to the Turkish armed forces, but did not say whose property it was.

Turkey's National Intelligence Agency carried out strikes in Syria after a bomb attack in Ankara last weekend, a Turkish security source said on Thursday.