The Turkish military has renewed firing at targets inside Syria after
two women and three children of the same family were killed in
southeastern Turkey by shelling from across the border. It was the first
time that Turkey fired into Syria during the 18-month-long crisis
there.
The Turkish parliament is discussing authorising troops to cross into Syria. But government sources say Turkey is not planning to declare war on Syria. “This is an act of aggression by Syria against Turkey,” Ankara’s UN Ambassador Ertugrul Apakan said in a letter to Guatemalan Ambassador Gert Rosenthal, who heads the rotating presidency of the 15-nation council.
The parliament had already been due to vote on Thursday on extending a five-year-old authorisation for foreign military operations, an agreement originally intended to allow strikes on Kurdish bases in northern Iraq. The deadly strikes have been roundly condemned by a chorus of nations.
Nato has held an urgent meeting to support Turkey, demanding "the immediate cessation of such aggressive acts against an ally". U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned that the development demonstrates "how Syria's conflict is threatening not only the security of the Syrian people but increasingly causing harm to its neighbors."
Most of the members of the Security Council were ready to support the statement, but Syria’s ally Russia asked that its release be delayed until Thursday while its diplomats consult with Moscow. Asli Aydintasbas, a columnist for the Turkish newspaper Milliyet, lobbied for a forceful Turkish reaction in her newspaper column Thursday.
Russia, which is allied to President Bashar al-Assad's government, has asked Damascus to acknowledge officially that the cross-border attack was "a tragic accident" which will not happen again. The Turkish military began shelling Syrian military sites in Tal Abyad, about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from the Turkish border, on Thursday, the opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria reported.
In recent months, Ankara has reportedly considered military intervention in order to secure a safe humanitarian area for Syrian refugees fleeing the fighting in a 19-month-old civil war that has left 31,000 dead.
The Turkish parliament is discussing authorising troops to cross into Syria. But government sources say Turkey is not planning to declare war on Syria. “This is an act of aggression by Syria against Turkey,” Ankara’s UN Ambassador Ertugrul Apakan said in a letter to Guatemalan Ambassador Gert Rosenthal, who heads the rotating presidency of the 15-nation council.
The parliament had already been due to vote on Thursday on extending a five-year-old authorisation for foreign military operations, an agreement originally intended to allow strikes on Kurdish bases in northern Iraq. The deadly strikes have been roundly condemned by a chorus of nations.
Nato has held an urgent meeting to support Turkey, demanding "the immediate cessation of such aggressive acts against an ally". U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned that the development demonstrates "how Syria's conflict is threatening not only the security of the Syrian people but increasingly causing harm to its neighbors."
Most of the members of the Security Council were ready to support the statement, but Syria’s ally Russia asked that its release be delayed until Thursday while its diplomats consult with Moscow. Asli Aydintasbas, a columnist for the Turkish newspaper Milliyet, lobbied for a forceful Turkish reaction in her newspaper column Thursday.
Russia, which is allied to President Bashar al-Assad's government, has asked Damascus to acknowledge officially that the cross-border attack was "a tragic accident" which will not happen again. The Turkish military began shelling Syrian military sites in Tal Abyad, about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from the Turkish border, on Thursday, the opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria reported.
In recent months, Ankara has reportedly considered military intervention in order to secure a safe humanitarian area for Syrian refugees fleeing the fighting in a 19-month-old civil war that has left 31,000 dead.
