Kurdish militants shell Turkish town, kills 1

Turkish media say Kurdish militants have fired two rockets from the northern Syrian region of Afrin at a Turkish border town, killing a teenage girl and wounding another person.

According to reports the attack was carried out against the border town of Reyhanli on Wednesday, fatally wounding 17-year-old Fatma Avlar.

Three other people, including two Syrian refugees, have died in similar attacks against Reyhanli and Kilis, another Turkish border town, since Turkey started an incursion against the militants in Afrin on January 20.

President Rajab Tayyib Erdoghan said on Sunday that Turkey would “cleanse” its entire border with Syria from the presence of militants known as the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG).

The Turkish incursion started after the United States said it sought to set up a thousands-strong force in Syria near the Turkish border comprising the anti-Damascus so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which is led by the YPG.

Turkey views the YPG as an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) group, which has been fighting a separatist war against Ankara for decades.

SS