The United States has stopped the training of Turkish pilots on F-35 fighters at an airbase in Arizona, US officials said, as Washington winds down Ankara's involvement in the programme over Turkey's plans to buy a Russian air defence system.
The move at Luke Air Force Base comes faster than expected, days after acting US Secretary of DefensePatrick Shanahan told his Turkish counterpart that their pilots who were already in the country could remain there until the end of July, Al Jazeera reports.
The US gave Ankara a July deadline to make its decision over Russian S-400 missile system. That would have allowed time for more training and for Turkey to rethink its plans.