Europe

Home page

Europe

Turkish FM speaks with UN envoy over deadly Syrian shelling

03 October 2012 23:35 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu held a phone talk Wednesday with UN-Arab League special envoy on Syria Lakhdar Brahimi on the Syrian artillery shells that fell in southeastern Turkey and killed five people, the semi- official Anatolia news agency reported, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

Five people were killed and 13 wounded Wednesday by artillery shells which came from Syria and fell in Turkish southeastern Sanliurfa province, local NTV news channel reported.

The shells hit a neighborhood in Akcakale town on the Turkish side of the border with Syria, killing a mother and her four children and wounding 13 people, including two policemen, according to the report.

"The explosions in Akcakale town from the Syrian side caused strong panic, and tight security measures have been taken in the town," Akcakale Mayor Abdulhakim Ayhan was quoted by Anatolia as saying.

Ayhan said two separate explosions occurred in the town. "After the first blast, many homes and businesses were damaged.A second blast took place at the same location," Ayhan added.

Davutoglu held a phone talk with Brahimi after the blasts, informing the envoy of the details of the incident, Anatolia quoted Turkish diplomatic sources as saying.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan also received immediately the information about the explosions from Sanliurfa Governor Celalettin Guvenc, NTV said.

Ankara has repeatedly complained about the spillover of Syrian artillery and gun fire into its territory. Last week, the Turkish government signaled that it would take action if mortar strikes were repeated on its territory from Syria.