Turkish police have arrested 25 protesters on Monday who condemned the arrival of NATO’s Patriot missiles to be deployed near the border with Syria after they tried to get through the barricades at Incirlik Air Force Base in the city of Adana.

US troops are assembling two Patriot missile batteries in the air force base to be later deployed in Gaziantep near Syria’s border.

Protests were also held in Turkey’s capital city of Ankara outside the US embassy, where angry protesters condemned Ankara’s interventionist policies towards Syria.

Earlier, two ships carrying two Patriot batteries each from Germany and the Netherlands anchored at the southwestern port of Iskenderun in Turkey, as part of a NATO-authorized operation to deploy the advanced armament along the border region.