TURKEY: Preparations underway at Incirlik air base for installation of Patriot missile batteries

Record ID: 861338

  • Title: TURKEY: Preparations underway at Incirlik air base for installation of Patriot missile batteries
  • Date: 9th January 2013
  • Summary: INCIRLIK, TURKEY (JANUARY 9, 2013) (REUTERS) DUTCH ROYAL PLANE TAXIING ON TARMAC PLANE TAKING OFF ANOTHER DUTCH ROYAL PLANE TAXIING ON TARMAC CONTROL TOWER DUTCH ROYAL PLANE TAKING OFF DUTCH ROYAL PLANE ON TARMAC
  • Embargoed: 24th January 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey
  • City:
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: Conflict,International Relations,Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVA6S8HF5DGWRORZ8X9VAC4BC7PP
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: Preparations were underway at Incirlik Air Base on Wednesday (January 9) for U.S. Air Force C5 Galaxy transport plane that will bring Patriot missile batteries to Turkey's border with Syria as part of a NATO agreement.
    The Netherlands, Germany and the United States are each sending two Patriot missile batteries and up to 400 troops to Turkey after Ankara asked for NATO's help to bolster security along its 900 kilometre (560 mile) border with Syria.
    The border has become a point of tension in the 21-month insurgency against President Bashar al-Assad, with Syrian government shells frequently landing inside Turkish territory.
    Turkey has repeatedly scrambled war planes along the frontier, fanning fears that the civil war could spread and further destabilise the region.
    About 400 U.S. personnel and equipment from the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Air Defense Artillery, based at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, will arrive in Turkey over the next several days by U.S. military airlift, the U.S. European Command said on its website.
    The U.S. will station its batteries near Gaziantep, a city of around 1.5 million people, which lies further to the east, some 60 kilometres (35 miles) from the Syrian border.
    The U.S. troops, who have already started arriving at Incirlik air base in Turkey, will man two U.S. Patriot batteries out of a total of six batteries that have been promised by NATO allies.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2013. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
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