Two rockets launched from an area in Syria held by Islamic State (IS) jihadists slammed into the centre of a Turkish border town today, injuring nine people including children and prompting the army to strike back in retaliation.
The first rocket hit a market area in the centre of the Turkish border town of Kilis, shattering windows and causing panic.
Seven people -- six children and one adult -- were wounded, said Kilis governor Ismail Catakli, quoted by Turkish media. The adult, aged 34, was said to be in a serious condition.
The youngest of the children wounded is a 10-month old baby and the oldest just 13, the Dogan news agency said.
All those wounded were refugees from the war in Syria, who now make up over half of the town's population.
Shortly afterwards, a second rocket hit the town, wounding two people, one Syrian and one Turk, NTV television said.
The strikes come one month into an unprecedented incursion into Syria by Turkish forces aimed at rooting IS jihadists and Kurdish militia from the border area.
The necessity of ending cross border rocket strikes like the latest attacks on Kilis was one of the reasons given by the government for the operation.
Following the rocket strikes, the Turkish army said it shelled IS targets in Syria 64 times and also launched air strikes on two IS positions inside Syria from where the rockets had been launched.
"Many Daesh (IS) terrorists in the area were neutralised," it said in a statement, without elaborating further.
Kilis has come under repeated attack from rocket fire from Syria in the last months, with 22 people killed, over half of them Syrian refugees.
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