Turkish shelling in Syria leaves eight children among 11 reported killed

Eight children were among 11 civilians killed on Monday in a Turkish artillery attack that hit near a school in a northern Syrian town in Aleppo province, a UK-based activist group has said.

The shelling on Tal Rifaat, controlled by local US-backed Kurdish fighters, took place as students were leaving the building and wounded 21 others, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Most of those killed in the attack were displaced from the Afrin region which was captured last year by Turkish troops and their Syrian proxies, Observatory head Rami Abdurrahman said.

The attack comes amid rising tensions between Ankara and the Syrian Kurds' western allies such as the US and France. This week NATO leaders are massing in the London suburb of Watford where the contentious Turkish operation in northeastern Syria will be discussed.

In a statement, Ted Chaiban, Unicef regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, said: "We are shocked and saddened at reports that eight children were killed and another eight were injured in attacks on Tal Rifaat town, northern Aleppo. 

"All of them were under the age of 15. This brings the number of children killed in the north of Syria to at least 34 in the past four weeks alone."

'All of them were under the age of 15. This brings the number of children killed in the north of Syria to at least 34 in the past four weeks alone'

- Ted Chaiban, UNICEF

Tal Rifaat, a strategic town located 20km south of Turkey's frontier, is the site of regular confrontations between Turkish-backed forces and Kurdish fighters they view as "terrorists". 

Turkey threatened to launch a cross-border offensive to capture Tal Rifaat last year after taking Afrin from the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia.

But Russia intervened to stop the planned offensive.

In October, Moscow said it had agreed to work with Turkey to remove all YPG militia "elements and their weapons" from Tal Rifaat. 

But in early November, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Kurdish "terror groups" had still not left.

Tal Rifaat is held by local Kurdish fighters displaced from Afrin, Abdurrahman said, adding that Russian forces and government troops are also currently deployed inside the town.

The town's population was initially comprised mostly of Arabs and Turkmens, but Ankara's Afrin offensive last year sent waves of displaced Kurdish families to the area. 

Turkish soldier killed

Turkey in October launched a cross-border operation south of its frontier against Syrian Kurdish forces it views as terrorists.

In the two months since the operation began, it has established a so-called "safe zone" in a 120km-long strip along its southern border, where it says it wants to resettle Syrian refugees.

One soldier was killed in Turkish-held areas in Syria on Monday after mortar fire by Kurdish forces, the country's defence ministry said.

"One of our heroic comrades was seriously injured after mortar fire... launched by members of the terrorist organisation," the ministry said.

The Turkish army responded in self-defence, it added.

The ministry would not say the precise location of the Turkish soldier at the time of the attack.