REYHANLI – A 17-year-old girl was killed in a Turkish border town onWednesday by rockets launched from Syria, officials said, as Turkey pressesits offensive against a Syrian Kurdish militia.
Ankara began a cross-border operation dubbed “Olive Branch” supportingSyrian rebels with air strikes and ground troops in northern Syria againstthe People s Protection Units (YPG) militia and its western enclave ofAfrin on January 20.
Another individual was also hurt after two rockets hit Reyhanli in Hatayprovince from northern Syria, the district mayor Huseyin Sanverdi said in astatement.
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told a press conference in Ankarathat 17-year-old Fatma Avlar was killed in a rocket attack.
According to state-run news agency Anadolu she died after she was taken tohospital.
The agency added that the rockets were launched by the YPG and hit twodifferent houses.
A few hours later, at least one new rocket hit a street in the centre ofReyhanli, not far from where the previous two rockets landed, an AFPcorrespondent at the scene said.
One man was injured as a result and taken to hospital, the correspondentadded.
Ankara views the YPG as a “terrorist” offshoot of the outlawed KurdistanWorkers Party (PKK), but the militia has been working closely with theUnited States to recapture swathes of territory in Syria from the IslamicState extremist group.
But the PKK is proscribed as a terror group by Ankara, the US and theEuropean Union.
Multiple rockets have hit the Turkish border provinces of Hatay and Kilisand had already killed at least four people before Wednesday.
A Turk and a Syrian were killed after two rockets hit Kilis on January 24.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday said the operation would”not stop until we eliminate the terror threat from our border and ensure asecure return for our Turkish brothers to their country”.
“The Afrin operation is a security issue for us,” Yildirim said.
The Turkish military said earlier on Wednesday that 712 “terrororganisation members had been neutralised” since the operation began. – AFP