The Turkish Parliament has authorized the country's military to carry out cross border operations in the wake of Wednesday's fatal shelling by Syrian forces of the Turkish border town of Akçakale, which killed two women and three children.
"This circumstance has reached a point that constitutes serious threat and risk to our national security. Therefore, it has become necessary to be able to respond to further risks and threats in a timely and immediate manner," says a resolution passed by the Turkish Parliament by a 320-129 vote in an emergency session on Thursday.
The mandate is for one year to send troops into Syria or carry out strikes against Syrian targets.
Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay said the priority was to act in co-ordination with international bodies.
The resolution points to a series of aggressive acts against Turkey by Syria beginning September 20, the day fighting between rebels and Syrian government forces near the border left three Turkish civilians wounded and temporarily forced the closure of the area's schools and farms.
Hours before Parliament gave its consent, the Turkish military started firing at targets inside Syria.
Turkish security officials and the Opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria were quoted as saying that Turkey resumed artillery strikes on Syria early on Thursday, targeting the Tal-al-Abyad district, some 10 kilometer inside the Syrian border.
Several Syrian troops were killed by Turkish fire, according to Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based Syrian activist group.
Reports quoting activists and security services said Turkey was reinforcing its troops along the border, raising fears the spillover from Syria's civil war could ignite a wider regional conflict.
Turkish leaders had already warned Damascus of the consequences of the unprovoked attack on Wednesday. "Our armed forces on border region have given the required response in line with the rule of engagements. Targets in Syria, which were detected by radar, were shot by shelling," the Turkish Prime Minister's office said in a statement.
Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said: "There is definitely a response to it in international law ... We are not blinded by rage, but we will protect our rights to the end in the face of such an attack on our soil that killed our people."
Ibrahim Kalin, foreign policy adviser to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said Ankara was not interested in a war against its neighbor, but warned that "Turkey is capable of protecting its borders and will retaliate when necessary."
Meanwhile, Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters during a visit to Islamabad that Russia had urged Syria to acknowledge in public its admission that the mortar attack, which killed five civilians across the border in Turkey, was a tragic accident, and that it will not happen again.
Although Turkey and Syria shared close ties until recently, their relations began deteriorating over Ankara's strong criticism of Damascus as it continued crackdown on protesters. It worsened in June, when Syrian military shot down Turkey's F-4 Phantom fighter-jet over the Mediterranean near its border.
Turkey has been providing refuge to Syrian dissidents fleeing the brutal security crackdown at home. Nevertheless, Damascus alleges that Syrian Army deserters are using Turkey as a base for launching attacks on Syrian military installations.
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