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Turkey says rocket strikes from Syria kill three people

Erdogan warns Turkey could launch a ground operation in Syria following cross-border escalation
A picture shows a view of the "Free Woman" square in the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobane, also known as Ayn al-Arab, in the north of the Aleppo governorate on 20 November 2022 (AFP)
A picture shows a view of the Free Woman square in the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobane, also known as Ayn al-Arab, in the north of the Aleppo governorate on 20 November 2022 (AFP)

Five rockets fired from northern Syria hit targets inside Turkey on Monday killing three people, including a child, and wounded six others, Turkey's interior minister said. 

The attack struck a school, two houses and a truck in the Turkish district of Karkamis, near a border gate in Gaziantep province, after weekend air strikes by the Turkish army in Syria and Iraq targeting bases of Kurdish fighters killed dozens of people.

Broadcaster CNN Turk said the rockets on Monday were fired from the Kobane area of Syria, controlled by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), the main component of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) . 

Turkey's interior minister vowed a "strong response".

Following the attack, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey could launch a ground operation in Syria.

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Late on Saturday, air strikes launched by the Turkish army in northern Syria and Iraq killed at least 29 people, including Kurdish fighters and Syrian soldiers.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based activist group that has an extensive network of sources in Syria, said the strikes had killed 18 members of the SDF and 12 members of Syria's military.

Turkey's defence ministry said on Sunday that the strikes had targeted Qandil, Asos and Hakurk in Iraq and Kobane, Tal Rifat, Cizire and Derik in northern Syria.

The ministry said that 89 targets, including shelters and ammunition depots, were destroyed in the air strikes.

One Turkish soldier and two police were wounded as a result of a rocket fired at Turkey's Syrian border province of Kilis on Sunday, Turkey's state-owned Anadolu Agency reported.

Anadolu said the rocket hit an area near a border gate but did not elaborate further.

In a statement earlier on Sunday, the SDF had said it would respond to the attacks from Turkey "effectively in the right time and place".

The renewed tensions at the borders come just days after Ankara blamed the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) for last Sunday's deadly bombing in central Istanbul. Turkey said on Tuesday that it planned to pursue targets in northern Syria after it completed a cross-border operation against the group. 

Turkey considers the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), the main component of the SDF, an extension of the outlawed PKK.

The PKK and SDF have denied any involvement in the Istanbul attack, in which six people were killed and 80 wounded.

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