ANKARA, Jan 4: US troops have started to arrive in Turkey to man Patriot missiles meant to protect the Nato ally from potential Syrian warheads, the US military said on Friday.

The United States, Germany and the Netherlands are each deploying two batteries of the US-built defence system to boost ally Turkey's air defences against any spill-over from Syria's nearly 2-year civil war. The Patriot systems are expected to become operational later this month.

The Stuttgart, Germany-based US European Command said in a statement that US personnel and equipment had started arriving at Turkey’s southern Incirlik Air Base. Some 400 personnel and equipment from the US military's Fort Sill, Oklahoma-based 3rd Battalion were to be airlifted to Turkey over the coming days, while additional equipment was expected to reach Turkey by sea later in January, the Command said.

Nato endorsed Turkey's request for the Patriots on Nov. 30 after several Syrian shells landed on Turkish territory.

Last month, Nato said the Syrian military has continued to fire Scud-type missiles, although none had hit Turkish territory, and said the alliance was justified in deploying the anti-missile systems in Turkey. Ankara is supporting the Syrian opposition and rebels and is providing shelter to Syrian refugees.

More than 1,000 American, German and Dutch troops are to be based in Turkey to operate the batteries. Nato said the Americans will be based at Gaziantep, 50 kilometres north of Syria. The Germans will be based at Kahramanmaras, located about 100 kilometres north of the Syrian border; the Dutch at Adana, about 100 kilometres west of the border.—AP