{"id":14853,"date":"2012-12-14T09:15:59","date_gmt":"2012-12-14T16:15:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=14853"},"modified":"2012-12-14T09:15:59","modified_gmt":"2012-12-14T16:15:59","slug":"patriot-missles-deployed-us-in-final-preparations-for-direct-war-on-syria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=14853","title":{"rendered":"Patriot Missles deployed &#8211; US in final preparations for direct war on Syria"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>U.S. to deploy Patriot missiles, troops to Turkey<\/strong><br \/>\nBy Dan De Luce &#8211; Agence France Presse &#8211; 14 Decemebr, 2012 &#8211; The Daily Star<\/p>\n<p>INCIRLIK, Turkey: The United States will deploy two Patriot missile batteries to Turkey along with 400 troops to help defend its ally against potential threats from neighbouring Syria, US officials said Friday.<\/p>\n<p>The move was part of a wider NATO effort to bolster Turkey&#8217;s air defences amid growing tension on the Turkish-Syrian border, with Ankara siding with opposition forces battling President Bashar al-Assad&#8217;s regime.<\/p>\n<p>US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta issued the order before landing at the Incirlik airbase in Turkey after a visit to Afghanistan, his spokesman said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The secretary, as we are en route to Turkey, has signed an order that will deploy some 400 US personnel to Turkey to support two Patriot missile batteries,&#8221; George Little told reporters aboard Panetta&#8217;s plane.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We expect them to be deployed in the coming weeks.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Turkey is a &#8220;very strong ally&#8221; and the US government is prepared in the context of NATO to support the defence of Turkey,&#8221; Little said.<\/p>\n<p>Germany and the Netherlands also have agreed to provide advanced &#8220;hit-to-kill&#8221; Patriot weapons, which are designed to knock out cruise and ballistic missiles as well as aircraft.<\/p>\n<p>The move coincides with rising fears the Syrian regime may resort to using chemical weapons against rebel forces and after Assad&#8217;s army unleashed Scud missiles in recent days.<\/p>\n<p>US and European leaders have warned the Assad regime not to use its arsenal of chemical arms, calling it a &#8220;red line&#8221; that would trigger international military action.<\/p>\n<p>Turkey has vowed to defend its territory after cross-border artillery fire wounded civilians and following the downing of one of its fighter jets.<\/p>\n<p>The Patriot, or &#8216;Phased Array Tracking Radar to Intercept on Target,&#8217; came into its own during the 1991 Gulf War when they were deployed to protect allies and US forces from Iraqi Scud missiles. The Patriot&#8217;s boxy launch units became instantly recognisable in TV images of the conflict.<\/p>\n<p>The anti-ballistic defence system was developed by arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin for the US Army.<\/p>\n<p>Panetta arrived in Turkey for a brief stop after a two day visit to Afghanistan, where he consulted with commanders on future troop numbers.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailystar.com.lb\/News\/Middle-East\/2012\/Dec-14\/198445-panetta-signs-order-to-send-patriot-missiles-to-turkey-reports.ashx#axzz2F2JyJj7s\">&#8230;more<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"igit_tsb_button\" style=\"float: left; margin-right: 10px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.crookedbough.com%2F%3Fp%3D14853&amp;text=Patriot+Missles+deployed+-+US+in+final+preparations+for+direct+war+on+Syria&amp;count=horizontal&amp;via=\" style=\"\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>U.S. to deploy Patriot missiles, troops to Turkey By Dan De Luce &#8211; Agence France Presse &#8211; 14 Decemebr, 2012 &#8211; The Daily Star INCIRLIK, Turkey: The United States will deploy two Patriot missile batteries to Turkey along with 400 troops to help defend its ally against potential threats from neighbouring Syria, US officials said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=14853#more-'\" class=\"more-link\">more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247],"tags":[2000],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14853"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14853"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14855,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14853\/revisions\/14855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}