Defense Secretary Leon Panetta signed an order that sends Patriot missiles to NATO ally Turkey to defend its border with Syria. The US will also deploy about 400 Americans to operate the missiles. NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports.By NBC News' Andrea Mitchell, Courtney Kube and wire reportsUpdated at 7:20 a.m. ET: INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey -- Defense Secretary Leon Panetta signed an order Friday to send two Patriot missile batteries to Turkey to protect it from rounds crossing the border from Syria.
The order includes 400 American personnel to operate the batteries.
"We are deploying two patriot batteries here to Turkey along with the troops that are necessary to man those batteries, so that we can help Turkey have the kind of missile defense it may very well need in dealing with threats that come out of Syria," Panetta told the troops at Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey.
Turkey, a NATO member, has repeatedly scrambled jets along the countries' 560-mile joint frontier and responded in kind when shells from the 20-month-old Syrian conflict came down inside its borders, fanning fears that the civil war could spread to destabilize the region.(http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/121214-patriot-215a.photoblog600.jpg)Abir Sultan / EPA, fileA Patriot anti-missile battery is shown during joint U.S.-Israeli military exercises near Jerusalem in October. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced Friday that the United States had agreed to send two Patriot batteries to NATO ally Turkey to protect from shells crossing over from fighting in neighboring Syria.
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