Turkey requests Nato missile defences amid Syria chemical weapons fears
Turkish officials say they have evidence Assad regime could resort to ballistic missiles if air campaign against rebels fails
Julian Borger, diplomatic editor
Guardian.co.uk
Sunday 2 December 2012
Turkey has asked for Nato Patriot missile defences to be deployed on its territory after receiving intelligence that the Syrian government was contemplating the use of missiles, possibly with chemical warheads, Turkish officials have told the Guardian.
The officials said they had credible evidence that if the Syrian government’s aerial bombardment against opposition-held areas failed to hold the rebels back, Bashar al-Assad’s regime could resort to missiles and chemical weapons in a desperate last effort to survive.
The Turks believe that the regime’s Soviet-era Scuds and North Korean SS-21 missiles would be aimed principally at opposition areas but could easily stray across the border, as Syrian army artillery shells and mortars have done.
A missile, especially with a chemical warhead, would represent a far greater threat to Turkish border communities, and so Ankara decided last month to ask Nato to supply Patriot missile defence systems, which can spot an incoming missile and intercept it.
“We have intelligence from difference sources that the Syrians will use ballistic missiles and chemical warheads,” a senior Turkish official said. “First they sent the infantry in against the rebels and they lost a lot of men, and many changed sides. Then they sent in the tanks, and they were taken out by anti-tank missiles. So now it’s air power. If that fails it will be missiles, perhaps with chemical warheads. That is why we asked Nato for protection.”
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