Russian air strikes that accidentally killed three Turkish soldiers in Syria were launched based on coordinates provided to Russia by the Turkish military, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.
"Unfortunately, our military, while carrying out strikes on terrorists, was guided by coordinates given to them by our Turkish partners, and Turkish servicemen should not have been present on those coordinates," Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, told a conference call with reporters.
"It was a lack of coordination in providing coordinates, that is how I would formulate it," said Peskov.
Peskov said the accidental strike prompted Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, to discuss better cooperation in fighting the Islamic State group in the area.
In a signal that the incident hasn't hurt a Russia-Turkey rapprochement, Peskov said on Friday that Erdogan is set to visit Russia next month.
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş said Thursday's Turkish casualties were the result of "faulty coordination" in Syria and that "the struggle there shows that there is a need for a much closer coordination."
