Turkey authorizes military action in Syria after mortar attack that killed civilians http://wapo.st/Rfbp9f
8:53 AM - 4 Oct 12 · Details
Turkey authorizes military action in Syria after mortar attack that killed civilians
MURAD SEZER/REUTERS - Turkish soldiers in a military vehicle patrol near the Akcakale border gate, southern Sanliurfa province, October 4, 2012. Turkish artillery hit targets near Syria's Tel Abyad border town for a second day on Thursday.
By Liz Sly, Updated: Thursday, October 4, 8:37 AM
BEIRUT — Turkey’s parliament voted Thursday to authorize military cross-border operations into Syria, a day after an apparently errant mortar strike from inside Syria killed five Turkish civilians.
Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay told the Associated Press that the 320-129 vote “is not for war,” but is intended to deter Syria from further violence that could spill over the border.
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A government official says three suicide bombers detonated their explosives near an officers' club in the Syrian city of Aleppo, trapping several bystanders under rubble. Another blast went off nearby, close to the Chamber of Commerce.
Interactive: Recent events in Syria
Even before the vote, Turkey launched artillery attacks against Syria Wednesday night and Thursday in retaliation for the deaths of its five civilians, marking the most serious escalation in international tensions since the Syrian revolt erupted 19 months ago.
Though this was not the first time the Syrian conflict has spilled over into Turkey since Syrians rose up in revolt against President Bashar al-Assad last year, the five people killed Wednesday after a shell launched by the Syrian military crashed into the Turkish border town of Akcakale were the first Turkish civilians to die.
Within hours, Turkey’s military retaliated with artillery strikes against unspecified targets, according to a brief statement issued by the office of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“Our armed forces in the border region responded immediately to this abominable attack in line with their rules of engagement; targets were struck through artillery fire against places in Syria identified by radar,” the statement said.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights quoted activists in the Syrian border town of Tal Abyad on Thursday as saying that an unspecified number of Syrian soldiers were killed by early-morning Turkish artillery fire that struck a military base.
Amid growing international concerns that the conflict could escalate further, Syria’s ally Russia on Thursday urged Syria to publicly admit that its forces had fired the shell that killed the civilians.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the Syrian authorities had told him the incident “was a tragic accident and that it will not happen again,” the Russian news agency RIA quoted him as saying during a visit to Islamabad.
“We think it is of fundamental importance for Damascus to state that officially,” he added.
