By Sinan Uslu

ANKARA

A Greek daily has issued a correction over its erroneous report claiming a Turkish ship had fallen short in doing its mission during a NATO drill two weeks ago in Italy.

After the Turkish Naval Forces Command objected to the erroneous Kathimerini daily report, NATO denied the claims.

The daily, which has both Greek and English sections, claimed on March 11 that a Turkish ship had failed to do its duty against a Russian submarine which tried to interfere in the Dynamic Manta exercise.

The drill was held on March 6-16 off the Sicilian coast, with ships, submarines, aircraft, and personnel from 10 allied nations.

The paper’s correction conceded that "there was an error” in its description.

"As NATO’s Allied Maritime Command said, it is normal in anti-submarine warfare exercises for participants to detect a number of underwater sounds, many of which turn out to be nothing, but all are investigated," said the correction.

"The Turkish ship under NATO operational control played a full part in all such investigations."