Mortar bomb kills 3 over the border in Turkey

Three people including a child were killed and at least nine others seriously wounded when a mortar bomb fired from Syria hit Turkey’s south-eastern border region of Akcakale yesterday.

A witness saw at least eight seriously wounded people being taken to hospital, three of them police officers. Television footage showed a cloud of smoke and dust rising up as residents ran to help the wounded. “It landed in the middle of a residential area and it hit a house. Three people died, we learned from the hospital,” Mayor Abdulhakim Ayhan said. “The people in the house died, including one woman and child.”

The conflict in Syria has affected border areas in the past when bullets have strayed into Turkish territory. A mortar bomb fired from Syria damaged homes and workplaces in Akcakale last Friday. In April, Turkey reported an incident to the United Nations in which at least five people, including two Turkish officials, were wounded when cross-border gunfire hit a Syrian refugee camp in Kilis, further west along the frontier.

Turkey beefed up its troop presence and air defences along its 900km border after Syria shot down a Turkish reconnaissance jet in June.