TEHRAN, YJC. -- Chief of General Staff Gen. Necdet Özel visited an army base in Adana's İncirlik district on Thursday to observe NATO-deployed Patriot missile batteries.
Land Forces Commander Gen. Hayri Kıvrıkoğlu and Air Forces Commander Gen. Mehmet Erten accompanied the army chief on his visit to the base in İncirlik.
NATO made the decision to supply Turkey with the Patriots to support its air defenses against a missile threat from Syria, where a civil war has left at least 60,000 people dead. Violence has also flared along the Turkish-Syrian border. Shells fired from Syria have landed in Turkey, which has retaliated with artillery fire.
The US, Germany and the Netherlands, who are the only three NATO members with advanced Patriot missile technology, agreed to provide two Patriot batteries each to protect NATO member Turkey.
The Patriots sent from Germany have been deployed in the province of Kahramanmaraş. The US Patriot anti-missile batteries will be set up in the southern province of Gaziantep. As a province bordering Syria, Gaziantep also hosts thousands of Syrian refugees who have fled the violence in Syria.