Turkey calls for US to send Patriot missiles
Turkey has reportedly asked the United States to deploy Patriot missile batteries to defend its troops from Syrian regime airstrikes as two more Turkish soldiers were killed in escalating violence between the two sides.
The Turkish military said a Syrian regime jet bombed its troops in Idlib province yesterday, bringing the number of Turkish soldiers killed by Bashar al-Assad’s forces in the last month to 15.
Turkey struck back with a barrage against Syrian troops which, it claimed, killed more than 50 of Assad’s fighters.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights suggested the actual death toll was closer to 11.
The fighting between Turkish and Syrian forces in Idlib continues to raise fears that the two states are heading for an all-out military confrontation.
Turkish officials asked the US to send two Patriot missile batteries to the southern province of Hatay to help protect its troops from Syrian or Russian airstrikes, according to Bloomberg News. The US has yet to respond to the request.
While the US has been vocally supportive of Turkey during the standoff, the request for Patriots may get a cold reception in Washington
given American frustration at Turkey’s decision to buy the Russian S-400 missile defence system despite US warnings.
The repeated clashes between Turkey and Syrian regime forces have led to growing frustration in Moscow.
Russia’s defence ministry accused Turkey of providing artillery cover to Islamist fighters, saying: ‘‘Militants were supported by artillery fire from the Turkish armed forces, which allowed the terrorists to break through the defence of the Syrian army.’’
The ministry added that Russian warplanes carried out several strikes in support of Assad’s forces. It was not clear if the strikes had been aimed at Turkish troops or at Syrian rebels.
Actions on the battlefield have potentially wide-ranging geopolitical implications. Relations between Turkey and the West have been strained on many fronts in recent years as Turkey drew closer to Russia.
However, Ankara now appears to be trying to restore ties with the US as it finds itself backing forces opposed by Moscow in both Syria and Libya. Russia has been a close ally of Assad for many years and is also supporting Gen Khalifa Haftar, a warlord trying to topple the Libyan government.
Nearly a million Syrian civilians have been displaced by Assad’s rapid advance into Idlib but a significant Turkish counter-offensive might slow his forces’ momentum. The civilians, including an estimated 500,000 children, have been camping in the freezing cold, trapped between the closed Turkish border and the advancing Syrian regime troops.
The European Union is urging an immediate halt to a crushing offensive by Syrian forces that has displaced nearly 1 million people in recent weeks.
The 27-nation EU said in a statement yesterday that it is ready to boost aid to the most vulnerable civilians affected in Syria’s Idlib region.
As tensions mount between Russia and Turkey, which are backing opposite sides in Syria’s civil war, the EU called for a sustainable ceasefire on all sides and ‘‘to allow unimpeded and direct humanitarian access to all those in need’’.
The offensive by Bashar Assad’s forces has triggered the biggest single wave of fleeing civilians in Syria’s nine-year war.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron talked to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday and proposed urgent talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to ease tensions.– Telegraph Group, AP