Rocket attack kills three in Southeast Turkey

A rocket attack from over the Syrian border on Monday killed three and wounded others in Turkey’s southeastern province of Gaziantep, Turkish officials said, after Turkish warplanes carried out air strikes on Kurdish militant bases in northern Syria and Iraq, destroying 89 targets.

The rockets hit a school, two houses and a truck in the Karkamis district, near a border gate in Gaziantep province, the governor Davut Gul said, adding six had been wounded. Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu later said three had died.

Turkish media said the rockets were fired from the Kobani area of Syria, controlled by the YPG (Peoples’ Protective Units) a Kurdish armed group that has yet to claim responsibility for the attack.

Turkey’s state news Agency Anadolu said one soldier and seven police officers were also injured in another rocket attack on Sunday as a result of rockets fired from the north of Syria.

Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF,) the armed wing of the de facto reigning structure of Northern Syria which also encompasses the YPG pledged on Sunday to strongly and effectively respond to Turkish attacks “at the appropriate timing and place.”

Turkey’s defense ministry said the weekend air raids were in retaliation for a bomb attack in Istanbul that killed six people one week ago.

SDF said that the Turkish strikes had destroyed infrastructure including grain silos, a power station and a hospital. Eleven civilians, an SDF fighter and two guards were killed, said Farhad Shami, head of the SDF media centre on Twitter.