Turkish soldiers taking position in the Turkish-Syrian border. (AFP Photo /
Bulent Kilic)
Source: Russia Today
http://rt.com/news/syria-turkey-shelling-nato-021/
NATO has promised to back Ankara in its escalating
conflict with Syria, as Turkey adds 25 new F-16 fighter jets to its border
protection force. It follows days of retaliation from Turkey after Syrian
shells started coming over the border last month.
"We have all the necessary plans in place to protect
and defend Turkey if necessary," NATO Secretary-General
Anders Fogh Rasmussen told journalists before a defense ministers meeting in
Brussels.
Meanwhile, Turkish news agencies report that 25 F-16 jet
fighters have arrived at the Diyarbakir base, 100 kilometers from the Syrian
border. Local officials say the aircraft have been designated for operations in
Kurdistan, the nearby zone of a long-simmering separatist conflict.
A separate convoy of armed vehicles and transports
carrying tanks arrived at another border town.
Turkey has endorsed the uprising against Syria’s
President Bashar al-Assad for the past 18 months, providing logistics, funding
and safe havens for rebels on its side of the 900-kilometer border.
But the antagonism ratcheted up last month when artillery
shells fired from inside Syria hit Turkish border towns for several consecutive
days. Five civilians were killed in one strike last Wednesday.
Turkey has since replied with barrages of its own.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has secured support
from parliament to conduct “hot pursuit” missions that could cross into Syrian
territory.
"From now on, every attack on us will be responded
to immediately. Every attack that targets our sovereignty, our security of life
and property will find its response," said Turkish government
spokesman Bulent Arinc.
Turkey enjoys a sizable advantage over its neighbor both
in terms of troop numbers and military technology.
With nearly one million troops and 400 war planes, Turkey
has the second-largest army and third biggest air force in NATO.
Syria has a nominal army three times smaller, which has
been exhausted by more than a year of constant fighting, and a fleet of
relatively outdated Russian planes.
But Rasmussen urged both sides not to blow up the
face-off into a full-scale conflict.
"We hope that all parties involved will show
restraint, and avoid an escalation of the crisis. I do believe that the right
way forward in Syria is a political solution."
Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon demanded that
Assad take the first step in ending the civil war.
"It is unbearable for the Syrian people to continue
like this. That is why I have conveyed to the Syrian government a strong
message that they should immediately declare a unilateral ceasefire,” he said during a
press conference in Paris.
The UN estimates that over 20,000 Syrians have been
killed and 700,000 made refugees during the conflict.
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