PKK/YPG rockets hit Turkish border, kill 3: Minister

GAZİANTEP

Five rocket attacks by the PKK/YPG have left three people dead and injured 10 others in Gaziantep, the border city with Syria, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu has informed.

A student and a teacher, Ayşenur Alkan, were among the people who lost their lives as a rocket attack in the Karkamış district from northern Syria targeted a settlement where a school was located.

Some rocket shells fired by terrorists also hit settlements in the city of Jarabulus on the other side of the border.

The treatment of the injured continues in the hospital, the minister said.

“As the operation carried out yesterday [Nov. 20], in which the terrorist organization suffered great losses, the attacks carried out against it will be answered in the strongest possible way. All necessary steps will be taken in this regard,” Soylu said, referring to the Turkish military’s cross-border air operation against terrorists’ hideouts in northern Iraq and Syria in reaction to last week’s deadly terror attack by the PKK/YPG in downtown Istanbul.

Late on Nov. 20, four other rockets fired by terrorists fell on empty land in Karkamış.

“Traitors who continue their attacks against innocent civilians regardless of children, the elderly, students or teachers, and show the cowardice to target even schools have been held accountable for their actions,” Defense Ministry also said in a statement.

“The Turkish Armed Forces is responding to the attacks in a double way,” it added.

Ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Spokesperson Ömer Çelik also issued a message condemning the attack.

“We wish Allah’s mercy on our souls who lost their lives as a result of a mortar/rocket fired at the Karkamış district center by the terrorist organization and a speedy recovery to our wounded,” he said. “We will make the terrorist organization pay the heaviest price.”