School in Turkish border town shelled from Syria

At least one person was killed and three others wounded on Monday when two mortar shells, likely fired from Syria, landed near a school in the Turkish town of Kilis on the border, officials said.

The mayor of Kilis, Hasan Kara, was quoted by Turkey's NTV television as saying that all schools in the town had been evacuated and the shelling had most likely come from Syria.

One of those wounded was in a serious condition, he added.

Television pictures showed the wounded being taken to hospital by ambulance. Windows on the ground floor of the school had been smashed by the impact of the blast while one car was severely damaged. 

Reports said that the person killed was a school cleaner. The shells reportedly landed in the garden outside the school.

"It seems that the shelling came from the south," said Kara. "The people should not allow provocations. Kilis residents should stay calm."

Turkish military sources told Reuters that radar showed the mortar had come from Islamic State (IS) outposts inside Syria.

They added that the military had retaliated "in kind."

Kilis, a town of just under 100,000, lies just north of the Syrian border, some 10km from the Syrian town of Azaz.

Turkish officials have said it is the only town in Turkey with a majority of Syrians, some of the estimated 2.2 million living in Turkey who have fled the civil war at home.

The area of northern Syria south of Kilis has in the last months been the scene of fierce clashes between various Syrian rebel groups, including IS.

The area is also contested by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) who have links with Kurdish militants currently engaged in a guerilla war with the Turkish state in Turkey’s southeast.

Azaz has, in particular, been the site of fierce clashes between the YPG and the al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham fighters.

Turkey has said that it is working to push IS out of the border zone, which the group controlled on the Syrian side for much of 2015.

A suicide bomber who the Turkish authorities said was a member of IS last week killed 10 German tourists in the centre of Istanbul, the first time that foreigners have been targeted by such an attack in Turkey.

Turkish ground forces then pounded some 500 IS positions in Syria and Iraq with artillery and tank fire over a 48-hour period, Ahmet Davutoglu, the Turkish prime minister said.

Turkey has often been criticised by its Western allies for not doing enough to combat IS.

But Ankara last year stepped up its involvement in the US-led coalition against IS, hosting American war planes at its Incirlik air base and conducting air strikes of its own.

Turkish media reports have said Turkish jets are no longer flying over Syria after the shooting down of a Russian war plane on 24 November by one of Turkey's jets led to an unprecedented crisis in relations between Moscow and Ankara.