Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said the command and control of Patriot missiles, which will be deployed on the Turkish-Syrian border against threats from Syria, will be under the NATO control, Todays Zaman newspaper reported.

Rasmussen told NTV news channel in an interview on Tuesday that the Patriot missiles will be installed by NATO allies and the command of the missiles will be under the NATO Command Control System.

Rasmussen said that a group of NATO experts with Turkish officials are making exploration in Turkey to figure out the best sites where the Patriot missiles will be deployed.

The NATO delegation includes 30 experts from the United States, Germany and the Netherlands, all of whom have Patriots in their arsenals.

The Defense Minister of Turkey İsmet Yilmaz earlier said the NATO's Europe Command Control System will be responsible in the command of the Patriot missiles and that there are Turkish officials in the system.

Touching upon the financing of the missiles, Rasmussen said the host country will take the financial burden of the Patriot missiles. He said the missiles have sufficient deterrence capability against any threats in the region.

Speaking about Russia's concern over the deployment of the Patriot missiles, Rasmussen said Moscow's anxiety is not based on legitimate concerns.

Russia said openly last Thursday that it opposes deployment of NATO Patriot missiles on Turkey's border with Syria, a sign of deepening tensions across the region over the Syrian crisis.

Syria and Iran also warned Turkey over the deployment of the Patriot missile system on the border with Syria.

Syria called Turkey's request "provocative" and Russia said the move could increase risks in the conflict.

Iran said Turkey's plans to deploy Patriot missiles near its border with Syria would add to the region's problems, as fears grow of the Syrian civil war spilling across frontiers.

Turkey formally asked NATO last Wednesday to deploy missile defense elements on its border 900-km (560-mile) with Syria to boost its air defense systems as the conflict in its southern neighbor deepens. It has repeatedly scrambled fighter jets along the frontier and responded in kind to stray Syrian shells flying into its territory.

The move highlights Ankara's fears that the situation on its border could deteriorate rapidly and echoes its calls for military support during the two Gulf Wars, when NATO deployed surface-to-air missiles on its soil in 1991 and 2003.

Germany, the Netherlands and the United States, are the only three NATO allies with appropriate Patriot surface-to-air missile systems available.

The Patriot missiles deployed to Turkey during the Gulf Wars were provided by the Netherlands.

Ankara twice this year has invoked Article 4 of the NATO charter which provides for consultations when a member state feels that its territorial integrity, political independence or security is under threat.

But some experts said deploying Patriots to Turkey would be partly symbolic, aimed at showing that NATO was behind Turkey.

On the ground, a Syrian warplane launched three bombs or rockets at a rebel command center in the northwest of the country near the Turkish border on Monday without causing any casualties, Hurriyet Daily news reported.

Meanwhile, rebels captured a hydroelectric dam on the Euphrates river in the country's north after days of heavy fighting, seizing crates of ammunition from the government troops who were protecting the strategic facility in the latest battlefield success for opposition fighters, activists said, adding that rebels overran regime defenses and captured the Tishrin Dam near the town of Manbij.