Turkish Official: US Deploying Rocket Launchers Near Syria

Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS

ISTANBUL (AP) -- The United States will deploy a rocket launcher system in southeastern Turkey across the border from Syria, officials said Tuesday.

U.S. Maj. Gen. Peter Gersten, deputy commander for the fight against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, said that the mobile, long-range rocket system will be the fourth one deployed around the region.

Speaking from Baghdad to reporters at the Pentagon, Gersten noted that one is in Jordan, another is in Iraq's Anbar province and another is being deployed to help in the fight to retake the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

He wouldn't say where exactly in Turkey the system would be placed, but it could likely be used as the campaign progresses to retake IS de facto capital Raqqa in northern Syria.

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