The veil of mystery has yet to be lifted over an alleged airstrike on Nov. 24 against Turkish-backed opposition rebels in northern Syria that left at least four Turkish soldiers dead and several others wounded. The incident, which under normal circumstances would have led to a torrent of indignant chest thumping by Turkish leaders, appears to have been quietly buried, with no mention of it in today’s headlines. Its absence prompts the question, Why?

The strike was said to have been carried out near the town of al-Bab. The Turkish General Staff issued a statement the day of the attack in which it said the Syrian air force had been responsible for the assault, but did not specify the area that had been bombed. If the Turkish claim is accurate, it would be the first time that Syrian regime forces have engaged in a hostile action against Turkey since its forces entered northern Syria in August to battle Islamic State militants and the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG). The Syrian government has not commented either way.

Of note, Nov. 24 marked the first anniversary of the downing of a Russian jet by Turkey over the Syrian-Turkish border, prompting speculation that Moscow had engineered the affair as an act of revenge. Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus, however, told a news conference today that Russian President Vladimir Putin had confirmed that the aircraft that carried out the attack did not belong to Russia. These assurances were likely relayed during two telephone calls that took place between Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Nov. 25 and 26. 

The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a respected monitoring group, has a different explanation for the attack. It said its information points to an IS suicide bombing. The Wall Street Journal reported that the jihadists had claimed responsibility for the Turkish deaths via one of IS' media arms.