Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

The German parliament has approved the deployment of Patriot air defense missiles to Turkey to protect its NATO ally against possible spillover from Syria's civil war, AP reported on Friday.

The mandate allows Germany to deploy a maximum 400 soldiers through January 2014.

German officials have stressed that the mission is purely defensive and aimed solely at protecting Turkey. They say plans call for the missiles to be stationed at Kahramanmaras, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the Syrian border.

The Netherlands and the U.S. will also provide two batteries each of the U.S.-built air defense systems.

US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta signed an official deployment order on Friday to send 400 American military personnel and two Patriot air defense batteries to Turkey to protect its territory from potential Syrian missile attack, New York Times reported on Friday.

Panetta signed the order authorizing the deployment of the batteries Friday morning while flying from Kabul to the military base in İncirlik, southern Turkey.

But Panetta did not mention how soon the two Patriot batteries will head to Turkey or how long they might stay.

Speaking to American airmen inside a hangar, Panetta said the crisis in Syria has made this base, roughly 60 miles from Syria, and others in the region exceptionally important.

Pentagon spokesman George Little said the U.S. troops operating the Patriots will be tasked with a defensive mission only. The surface-to-air missiles could technically be used to enforce a no-fly zone over northern Syria, but NATO officials have stressed that they are not gearing up for such a move, which would mark a sharp escalation in the West's involvement in Syria's conflict, The Washington Post reported.

Panetta said "it is a matter of time" before the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is toppled. The United States, he said, is providing non-lethal aid to certain factions of the opposition, hoping to bolster responsible new leaders.

The Netherlands has also offered to deploy two Patriot batteries to Turkey.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte pledged Thursday to provide two such missile batteries early next year to a NATO mission defending Turkey against cross-border attacks from Syria, DPA reported.

All six units will be under NATO's command and control and are scheduled to be operational by the end of January, according to officials in Washington.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that the deployment of Patriot missiles will be defensive only, it will in no way support a no-fly zone or any offensive operation.

He also said that the Assad regime in Syria was approaching collapse and its fall is just a matter of time now.

Rasmussen's remarks came only hours after a senior Russian diplomat said the Syrian regime was "losing control over an increasing part of the territory."

However, the Russian Foreign Ministry on Friday downplayed earlier comments made by the ministry's deputy head in which he suggested that the Syrian opposition could win the civil war raging in the country.

The Russian ministry said that Mikhail Bogdanov has not made any specific statements for the press on Syria in recent days.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said "we have never changed our position (on Syria) and we never will".

Bogdanov's comments were also welcomed by the U.S. Department of State, which commended Moscow "for finally waking up to the reality."

Lukashevich retorted that "we were never sleeping to begin with and we never changed our position, and will not do so in the future."

Russia has so far refused to turn against Assad's regime despite the bitter conflict in Syria.

At least 20,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed since the uprising against President Assad began some 21 months ago. The violence has spawned more than 465,000 refugees, while more than 2.5 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, according to UN estimates.