NATO to deploy missiles to Syria/Turkey border

The NATO Military Alliance has agreed to a Turkish request and will station several Patriot Anti-Missile batteries along its border with Syria. Five Turks have already died after missiles from its neighbour crossed the border. NATO officials said that Turkey made the request for the weaponry because of concerns the Assad regime is using chemical weapons.

International Correspondent John Irvine reports from the Turkey/Syrian border:

The NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmusse said the deployment of the missiles would act as a deterrent.

He said: "A deployment of Patriot missiles will serve as an effective deterrent and that way de-escalate the situation along the Syrian-Turkish border because the mere fact that the missiles, the Patriot missiles have been deployed make it necessary for any potential aggressor to, to think twice before they could even consider attacking Turkey."

But Russian officials issued a warning to NATO that the deployment risked having the opposite effect. The Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said: "The stockpiling of armament is always creating a risk that these armaments will be used."

The Foreign Secretary William Hague earlier said the situation in Syria continued to deteriorate and the UK would do what it could to help refugees.