US missile destroyer crosses Turkey's Canakkale Strait en route Black Sea

A US missile destroyer, the USTruxton, crossed Turkey's Canakkale Strait on Friday morning en route to the Black Sea, private Dogan News Agency reported.



The USTruxton is the third warship this week crossing through the strait after Ukrainian and Russian warships amid standoff between the West and Russia over Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, according to the report.



The US Navy said in a statement that the USTruxton left Greece on Thursday on the way to the Black Sea in order to conduct training with the Romanian and Bulgarian navies.



"Truxton's operations in the Black Sea were scheduled well in advance of her departure from the United States," Lt. Shaun Eklund, spokesman for the US Naval Forces Europe-Africa in Naples, said on Thursday.

