BRUSSELS: Turkey is expected to formally request yesterday that advanced Nato Patriot missiles be placed on its border to defend against Syrian attacks, Western officials said.
Syrian rebels fighting President Bashar Al Assad have been able to take large swathes of land but are almost defenceless against Syria’s air force. The rebels have called for an internationally enforced no-fly zone, a measure that helped Libyan rebels overthrow their long-term leader last year.
German Defence Minister Thomas de Maiziere said Germany expected Turkey to make the request to Nato for Patriot deployment on Monday and would study such a request “with solidarity”.
“But if we have a deployment of Patriots on the Turkish border then this will happen with German soldiers,” he told reporters in Brussels, on the sidelines of a meeting of EU defence ministers.
Only the United States, the Netherlands and Germany have the appropriate Patriot missile system available.
Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that Turkey could count on “allied solidarity” but said that the missiles would be purely for defence and not for creating a no-fly zone in Syria.
In Damascus, opposition activists said that Assad’s forces had started the heaviest bombardment in 40 days of air strikes and artillery shelling aimed at limiting gains by rebels operating on the edge of the capital.
“Multiple rockets launchers are just making huge, random destruction,” said Rami al-Sayyed of the Syrian Media Centre, an opposition activists’ organisation monitoring Assad’s crackdown on the 20-month revolt.
The civil war, which activists say has killed 38,000 people, has dragged Syria’s neighbours and world powers into the conflict. Iran, Russia and China have stood by Assad as France, Britain and the United States have called for his overthrow.
Reuters
