Turkey’s defense ministry said on Friday that a ballistic missile fired from Iran was shot down in Turkish airspace by NATO assets, marking the third such incident since the start of the US-Israeli military campaign against Iran.
Etkisiz hâle getirilen balistik mühimmat ile ilgili açıklama.
Statement on the neutralized ballistic munition.#MillîSavunmaBakanlığı pic.twitter.com/j6WdF7xqxq
— T.C. Millî Savunma Bakanlığı (@tcsavunma) March 13, 2026
“A ballistic munition launched from Iran and entering Turkish airspace was neutralized by NATO air and missile defense assets deployed in the eastern Mediterranean,” the ministry said in a statement.
Hours earlier, sirens sounded at İncirlik Air Base in southern Turkey, a key military facility near the city of Adana that hosts US troops and supports NATO operations, according to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency.
Local media also reported sirens in the southeastern province of Batman, about 370 miles to the east.
NATO air defenses intercepted a first ballistic missile fired from Iran on March 4, with a second brought down on Monday.
Residents in Adana said they were awakened by sirens at 3:25 a.m., and several posted footage on social media showing a fast-moving object on fire in the sky, the Ekonomim business news website reported.
Sirens also sounded in Batman at around 4 a.m., with reporters saying the alarm appeared to come from a military drone base next to the city’s airport.
After Monday’s incident, the United States closed its consulate in Adana and urged US citizens to leave southeastern Turkey.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian denied in a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan that the missile had been fired from Iran.
Since the US-Israeli campaign against Iran began on February 28, Tehran has responded with strikes across the Middle East.
İncirlik has long been used by US forces and also hosts military personnel from Spain and Poland, according to the base’s website.
US troops are also stationed at Kürecik in central Malatya province, where they operate an early warning radar system that NATO describes as a key part of its missile defense shield and one capable of detecting missile launches from Iran.
Although Ankara has denied that radar data from Kürecik has ever been used to assist Israel, the site has long been a source of tension with Tehran.
On Tuesday Turkey said a Patriot missile defense system was being deployed to Malatya, days after NATO announced it was strengthening its ballistic missile defense posture across the alliance.
© Agence France-Presse