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Turkey hits Syria after deadly shelling

03 October 2012 22:14 (UTC +04:00)

Earlier on Wednesday Syrian shells crashed into a Turkish border town, killing five people, the first time Turkeyâ€™s citizens were killed by cross-border fire from its war-torn neighbour.

An outraged Ankara said the attack went â€œtoo farâ€, and it swiftly retaliated.

â€œOur armed forces in the border region immediately retaliated against this heinous attack... by shelling targets spotted by radar,â€ Turkeyâ€™s prime ministerâ€™s office said in a statement.

â€œTurkey will never leave unanswered such provocations by the Syrian regime targeting our national security, in line with engagement rules and international law.â€

The Syrian shelling was condemned by the United States, which said it was â€œoutragedâ€ by the attack, while UN chief Ban Ki-moon told Damascus to respect its neighboursâ€™ sovereignty.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, of which Turkey is a member, expressed â€œits strong condemnationâ€ of the Syrian shelling, said a spokeswoman.

â€œIt has been decided that the NATO council will meet urgently,â€ Turkeyâ€™s prime ministerâ€™s office said.

Diplomatic sources in Brussels said the alliance would meet on Wednesday evening.

Relations between Syria and Turkey have steadily deteriorated since the start of the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assadâ€™s regime first broke out in March 2011.

The Syrian shells crashed into the Turkish border town of Akcakale, which has been hit by Syrian fire several times recently and where schools have been shut over the past two weeks because of the violence.

The shells killed five Turkish nationals, including a mother and her three children.

â€œThree or four Syrian shells fell inside Turkey at around 4:30 pm local time ... and one of them hit a house. As a result, we unfortunately lost our five citizens,â€ the regional governor Celalettin Guvenc told Anatolia.

Ten others were wounded by the Syrian shells and two of them were in critical condition, he said.

â€œThe last incident went too far,â€ Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc was quoted as saying by Anatolia news agency.

â€œNATO treaty articles bring about certain liabilities when one of its members is attacked.

â€œWe will not be blinded by rage, but we will protect our rights to the end in the face of an attack on our soil killing our people,â€ he warned.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu called UN chief Ban Ki-moon, NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen and the UNâ€™s Syria peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi over the incident, his office said.

Ban encouraged Davutoglu to â€œkeep open all channels of communication with the Syrian authorities with a view to lessening any tension that could build up as a result of the incident,â€ spokesman Martin Nesirky said.

The UN chief said that the incident â€œdemonstrated how Syriaâ€™s conflict is threatening not only the security of the Syrian people but increasingly causing harm to its neighbors.â€

In Washington, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that â€œwe are outraged that the Syrians have been shooting across the border. We are very regretful about the loss of life on the Turkish side.â€

She added it was a â€œvery, very dangerousâ€ situation, and said she would be discussing with her Turkish counterpart â€œwhat the best way forward would be.â€

Wednesdayâ€™s attack marked the second time that fire from Syria killed people inside Turkey. In April, two Syrian nationals were killed on Turkish soil by stray bullets fired from the Syrian side.

Turkish officials have advised residents to stay away from the volatile border with Syria, where more than 100 schools have remained closed in the region over the past two weeks because of the violence.

A week ago, the Turkish army deployed artillery and anti-aircraft missiles along the border in the region.

Since late July, Syrian rebels have seized control of at least three key border crossings with Turkey and others on the eastern border with Iraq.

Turkey, once a strong ally of Syria, broke with Damascus after the regime began cracking down on dissent, in a conflict which monitoring groups say has claimed more than 31,000 lives since March 2011.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accussed Syria of becoming a â€œterrorist stateâ€ carrying out massacres of its own people.

Turkish-Syrian ties have further deterioated after Syria shot down a Turkish jet fighter in June, prompting Ankara to shutter its 900-kilometre (560-mile) border with tanks and anti-aircraft missiles.

After that incident, Erdogan signaled that Turkish military rules of engagement toward Syria changed, saying any Syrian military officer approaching Turkey border and deemed a threat would be treated as a military target.