Turkey on Tuesday warned its NATO ally the US against repeating violations of Turkish airspace at the border with Iraq, threatening unspecified action.
The warning followed violations by two US F-16 warplanes on May 24, which some Turkish media described as a deliberate attempt at intimidation as Ankara discusses whether it undertake a military strike at Turkish Kurd rebel bases in northern Iraq.
"We warned them not to repeat this ... If this happens again ... if this takes a different dimension, what we will do is obvious," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in an interview with the NTV news channel.
He would not specify what action Turkey might take.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Tom Casey said the incident involved an "unintended violation of Turkish airspace" and was under investigation.
"It's something that, as soon as we found out about it, we did discuss it with both the Turkish defense ministry and foreign ministry," he said.
"We are very respectful of Turkish sovereignty and of Turkish airspace, and through our investigation, we're going to make sure that we take whatever steps are necessary to ensure that this kind of thing doesn't happen again," he said.
Despite the US assurances, the foreign ministry handed an official protest to a US diplomat earlier on Tuesday.
The general staff said the two US jets remained in Turkish airspace over the border province of Hakkari for four minutes.
Washington is opposed to a Turkish cross-border operation into Kurdish-run northern Iraq, fearing it may destabilize a relatively calm region.
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