ANKARA, March 13 — Sirens wailed early today at Turkiye’s Incirlik airbase, a key Nato facility where US troops are stationed near the southern city of Adana, state news agency Anadolu reported.

There was no immediate official comment on the incident, which took place four days after Nato air defences shot down a ballistic missile in Turkish airspace that was fired from Iran, the second in five days.

Residents of Adana, which lies 10km from the base, were woken up at 3:25am (0025 GMT) by sirens, which sounded for around five minutes, according to the Ekonomim business news website.

It said a red alert sounded at the base.

Several people posted mobile phone footage on social media of a fast-moving object that appeared to be on fire moving through the night sky as police and ambulance sirens wailed through the streets, it said.

Defence news platform SavunmaSanayiST said the objects were “believed to be fragments from a third ballistic missile” or from the interceptor, which had entered the atmosphere and burnt up before falling to the ground.

Nato had on Monday confirmed shooting down a second ballistic missile fired from Iran, prompting Ankara to warn Tehran against “provocative steps”.

The announcement came shortly after Washington said it was closing down its consulate in Adana, urging all American citizens to leave southeastern Turkiye.

Later that day, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian phoned Turkiye’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan and denied the missile had been fired from Iran.

US troops at two Turkish bases 

Since the US-Israeli war against Iran started, Tehran has launched strikes across the Middle East. Turkiye had appeared to have been spared.

The Incirlik air base is an important Nato facility that has been used by US troops for decades, but which also hosts military personnel, including from Spain and Poland, the base’s official website says.

US troops are also stationed at Kurecik, another Turkish base in the central Malatya province which houses an early-warning radar system that Nato describes as a “key element” of its missile shield, and which can detect Iranian missile launches.

Although Ankara has categorically denied that the radar data has ever been used to help Israel, its presence has rattled Tehran.

On Tuesday, Turkiye said a Patriot missile defence system was being deployed in Malatya as Nato “strengthened its air and missile defence measures”.

Nato shot down a first missile on March 4, saying it had identified the launch, confirmed its trajectory and intercepted the threat “in less than 10 minutes”. A day later, it said it had strengthened its “alliance-wide ballistic missile defence posture” without giving details.

The Incirlik and Kurecik bases are a deeply sensitive issue for Turkiye, with police arresting three journalists for “national security offences” over footage filmed near Incirlik just hours after the war began on February 28. — AFP