Turkey has agreed that NATO can turn its airbase in Turkey into a base for ground operations into Syria.

The country will become the main base in the area for the US-led military alliance’s ground forces.

NATO’s Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said the alliance will transfer the bulk of its ground forces from a military base in the city of Heidelberg in southwestern Germany.

Other troops will arrive from Spain to be placed at the Izmir Air Station in western Turkey, which will now become the centre for ground troops.

Turkey has recently toughened its opinion on neighbouring Syria, where unprecedented civilian unrest has led to the deaths of many people.

Ankara has already created its own military bases close to the common border with Syria.