LEFKONIKO, Cyprus (Reuters) - The last three of six Turkish F-16 war planes left Cyprus on Friday after a one-day stay in response to a Greek air force visit to the divided island earlier this week. Witnesses said the three F-16s took off from a small Turkish Cypriot airport in Lefkoniko and circled before heading north towards Turkey. Six F-16 war planes arrived in the northern sector of the Mediterranean island on Thursday amid increasing tension between NATO allies Greece and Turkey. The other three jets left on Thursday afternoon. The Turkish move was in retaliation for an unprecedented visit by four Greek F-16s and two C-130 transport planes to the southern Cypriot air base of Paphos earlier this week. The United States criticised the Greek and Turkish aircraft deployments. The Defence Department said a U.S. aircraft carrier would be in the Mediterranean soon on a previously scheduled tour. Cyprus has been divided since Turkish troops invaded in 1974 in response to a Greek-inspired coup in Nicosia. A breakaway Turkish-Cypriot state in the north is recognised only by Ankara, which keeps 30,000 troops there.