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Four killed in Turkey's Kilis

April 18, 2016

Rockets fired from "Islamic State" territory in Syria have hit the Turkish border town of Kilis, killing three children and a shepherd, according to local officials. Turkey's army says it struck back with artillery.

https://p.dw.com/p/1IY2k
Türkei Kilis Raketenbeschuss
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/K.Kocalar

Turkish security and hospital sources said four Katyusha-type rockets struck, one of them hitting a teachers' dormitory.

Hospital sources said four people had died and eight others were wounded. A Syrian shepherd was wounded and later died of his injuries.

The Associated Press and the French news agency AFP quoted the Kilis governor's office as saying three of those killed were children.

Last week, three straight days of rocket salvos fell around the southeastern Turkish town, wounding more than 20 people.

Toll mounting in Kilis

Rocket strikes on Kilis this year have now killed at least 10 people. Monday's toll was the heaviest in a single day.

Syrien Türkei Bürgerkrieg Flüchtlinge an der Grenze Flagge
Kilis houses many refugees from adjacent SyriaImage: PHIL MOORE/AFP/GettyImages

Kilis is currently housing an estimated 110,000 refugees from the five-year civil war in Syria.

Kilis governor Suleyman Tapsiz told the state-run broadcaster TRT Haber that the Turkish army retaliated by shelling positions held by Daesh - the Arabic acronym for IS - across the border.

"Our army officials are locating their coordinates and destroying them with artillery fire," Tapzis said.

Mortar incident in Hatay

Separately, Turkey's Dogan news agency said the Turkish military had fired artillery into Syria after a mortar round landed near an army outpost in the southern province of Hatay.

Turkey is part of a US-led coalition fighting IS in neighboring Syria and Iraq while also cracking down on Kurds it describes as militants in Turkey's southeast.

Neither the IS nor the al Qaeda-affiliated al Nusra Front are included in a truce brokered by the United States and Russia. It came into force late February.

ipj/msh (AP, Reuters, AFP)