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Soldiers stand guard next to a tank on the Turkish- Syrian border near the Akcakale crossing. (Reuters)
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Istanbul, Oct. 4: Turkey’s parliament approved a motion today that authorises further military action against Syria, as Turkey began its second day of shelling targets within Syria in response to a mortar attack that killed five civilians.
The measure, which was ratified after several hours of a closed-door session in the capital, Ankara, permits cross-border raids, although senior officials insisted that Nato ally Turkey did not want a war with its Arab neighbour — an escalation that could turn Syria’s bloody civil strife into a regional conflict with international involvement.
The motion read, in part, “The ongoing crisis in Syria affects the stability and security in the region and now the escalating animosity affects our national security,” according to the semi-official Anatolian News Agency.
The Turkish military pounded targets inside Syria today in retaliation for the mortar attack a day earlier that killed five civilians in Turkey. Local news reports said Turkish shells fell inside Syria on at least 10 occasions after midnight, landing near the border town of Tel Abyad, some 9.6km inside Syrian territory, across a historic fault line where modern Turkey abuts Arab lands that once formed part of the Ottoman Empire.
State television said the shelling continued until dawn with four more barrages until the guns fell silent around 6.45 am. Activist groups in Syria said the shelling killed several Syrian government soldiers.
The exchanges sent tremors across a region fearful that the mounting violence in Syria would spill into neighbouring countries. Ibrahim Kalin, a senior aide to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, wrote on Twitter feed: “Turkey does not want war with Syria. But Turkey is capable of protecting its borders and will retaliate when necessary.” In a separate message, he said: “Political, diplomatic initiatives will continue.”
The assurance came as western European leaders who have joined Turkey in supporting rebel forces in Syria sought to prevent the border clash from flaring out of control.
Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy chief, criticised Syria for yesterday’s mortar bombing, but urged restraint “on all sides”. The British foreign secretary, William Hague, said Turkey’s response was “understandable, an outrageous act has taken place, Turkish citizens have been killed inside Turkey by forces from another country”.
The Turkish motion was seen as addressing the threat that the clashes would have serious consequences both militarily and in international law, analysts said. “Turkey’s shelling into Syria late yesterday and the parliamentary motion drafted in emergency both aim at building pressure over Damascus,” said Nihat Ali Ozcan, a strategy expert with the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey.
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