Turkish army using Israeli-built drones [View All]

[sabra]

Source: CNN

Istanbul, Turkey (CNN) -- Despite an epic rift in Turkish-Israeli relations, Turkey's top general announced his troops are relying on new unmanned aerial drones recently purchased from Israel to battle Kurdish rebels.

At an international military conference on Monday, the commander of Turkey's armed forces, Gen. Ilker Basbug, said that within the last 10 days, his troops had begun employing Israeli-made "Heron" drones on surveillance missions over Turkey's mountainous eastern border with Iraq.

Basbug spoke after a weekend of bloody clashes with Kurdish rebels left at least 12 Turkish soldiers stationed in this border region dead.

The fact that Turkey still depends on Israel for high-tech defense technology could complicate the Turkish government's threats to punish Israel for a botched Israeli commando raid in which eight Turks and a dual-national Turkish-American were shot dead aboard a Turkish ship carrying aid to Gaza.

Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/06/21/turkey.israeli.surveillance/?hpt=T2