Turkey’s military returned fire into an Islamic State-controlled region of Syria on Tuesday after three rockets landed in the Turkish border town of Kilis injuring some people, a Turkish security official said.
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Turkey always responds using artillery fire directed against positions over the border in Syria from where the rocket fire emanates.
In mid-February, Turkish artillery also shelled targets of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) inside Syria but there have been no reports of any further such fire since the ceasefire.
One rocket hit the roof of a Yavuz Sultan Selim Foundation building housing refugee orphans in Kilis’ Hakverdi neighborhood, while another fell in a rural area close to a school in Yavuz Sultan Selim district. 40-year-old shepherd Kamil Cerruh, who was a Syrian national, succumbed to his wounds in Kilis State Hospital, while 14-year-old student Mehmet Sarıbuğday was injured. One person died and 19 were wounded when Kilis was rocketed last week.
Kilis has a Syrian refugee camp and shells have landed from Syria before. Twelve people were wounded there on 11 April, then the following day two people were killed and six wounded in a similar strike, Hurriyet reported. The town has witnessed an nearly daily salvo of rocket fire from Islamic State-controlled territory in Syria.
Turkey’s intelligence chief Hakan Fidan made a rare public visit to Kilis last week while Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu also vowed to protect the town.
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In the statement, Bilgic pointed out that Turkey has been hosting some 3 million Syrians fleeing violence in Syria and that just last week, thousands of Syrians were displaced as a result of Daesh attacks in northern Syria.
