Turkey returns fire into Syria after rockets hit border town: security official

ANKARA: Three rockets hit the Turkish town of Kilis near the Syrian border on Tuesday and Turkey’s army returned fire into an Islamic State-controlled region of Syria, a security official said, a day after similar rocket fire killed four people.

No one was killed in the latest incident, although some people were wounded, the official said, without giving further details.

Kilis, which is just across the border from a region of Syria controlled by Islamic State militants, has been hit by repeated rocket fire in recent weeks.

On Monday, four people were killed when five rockets landed in the town, including one that hit a teachers’ dormitory.

Last week more than 20 people were wounded in three straight days of rocket salvoes towards the town, where an estimated 110,000 Syrian refugees are housed.

Following last week’s attacks Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the military was conducting a “decisive battle” to protect citizens from a “circle of fire”.

Turkey is facing several security threats.

As part of a US-led coalition, it is fighting Islamic State in neighbouring Syria and Iraq as well as Kurdish militants in its own southeast, where a 2-1/2-year ceasefire collapsed last July, triggering the worst violence since the 1990s.