Turkey leaves behind Israeli sortie

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Turkey said the controversy over Israel’s penetration of its airspace during a bombing run in Syria is over.

The discovery of jettisoned fuel tanks in Turkey’s frontier with Syria after the mysterious Sept. 6 sortie prompted protests from Ankara. After weeks of silence, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert apologized to Turkey, one of the few Muslim powers to have good relations with the Jewish state.

“It is no easy thing to discover that combat jets from a friendly state have penetrated your skies overnight,” Turkish President Abdullah Gul said in a Ma’ariv interview published Tuesday. “It is good that you apologized, even though the apology was late.

“As we see it, the matter is closed and we hope that it will not be repeated in the future.”

Jerusalem has not given details on the airstrike, which foreign analysts believe targeted a nascent nuclear facility. Syria complained about the incident to Turkey.

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