Six people, including five children, were injured when a rocket fired from northwestern Syria landed in the city centre of Kilis in southern Turkey. on Thursday, the province’s governor told Turkey’s Anadolu Agency.
The Turkish Armed Forces responded immediately to the attack by shelling positions of the DAESH terrorist organisation with artillery and multiple rocket launchers, according to military sources, speaking on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking with the media.
The projectile landed in Tekke Street in the neighbourhood of Canpolat, according to an Anadolu Agency correspondent at the scene.
Later in the day, a second rocket fired from Syria also landed in Kilis, according to a security source, .
The source, speaking on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking with the media, said the rocket landed near Mercidabik Primary School in central Sarac Mehmet Cavus neighbourhood.
Immediately after the incident ambulances and police rushed to the scene. No casualties have been reported.
A controlled explosion of the rocket was carried out by bomb disposal experts, the source added.
Kilis Province lies six kilometres (four miles) from the Syrian border.
In Kilis alone the governor said that so far this year more than 20 people have been killed and more than 80 others wounded in such incidents.
The attacks on Kilis were the first since Ankara-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) forces swept into northern Syria last month and cleared DAESH from Turkey’s southern border. Operation Euphrates Shield was launched by Turkey after months of attacks on Kilis reduced parts of the town to rubble.
“We entered Syria because these rockets are damaging property and human life. We want to establish security,” Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told reporters in Ankara.
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