'Rocket projectiles' from Syria kill two in SE Turkey

KILIS, Turkey

Two people, including a woman and a child were killed when projectiles of a rocket fired from Syria fell inside Turkey's southeastern border province of Kilis Tuesday afternoon, local authorities said.

A 54-year-old woman suffered severe injuries in the incident, who later succumbed to her wounds at the hospital.

The shelling also wounded two children who were inside a vehicle traveling on Kilis peripheral road; they were hit by shrapnel pieces, authorities added. One of the children died on way to the hospital.

According to Turkish authorities, shells fired from the Syrian side of the border landed in an area behind the Kilis State Hospital building in the Kazim Karabekir neighborhood.

Police squads along with medics and fire brigade teams were dispatched to the area following the incident.

Police also took security measures in the area, warning residents against coming out of their houses.

Security sources said a total of eight rocket projectiles landed in Kilis, one of which also hit an empty house.

Provincial Police Chief Candemir Ozdemir and Provincial Gendarmerie Commander Colonel Gokhan Sahin also investigated the scene.

In mid-January, a school janitor named Aysegul Polat and a teenaged female student Gulten Canpolat died from their injuries when the Eyup Gokce Imam Middle School in southeastern Gaziantep province got hit by a Katyusha rocket; a teacher was also left wounded in the incident.

Kilis lies around five kilometers (three miles) across the border from Daesh-controlled Syrian territory.

Turkish territory has often been hit by artillery fire as the Syrian civil war rages just a few kilometers to the south. Such incidents are answered with retaliatory fire from the Turkish army.