http://www.metrotvnews.com/read/news...-3-Warga-Turki



Metrotvnews.com, Ankara: Tiga orang tewas akibat tembakan meriam di kota Akcakale, Turki, yang berbatasan dengan Suriah, Rabu (3/10). Disinyalir, tembakan berasal dari wilayah Suriah.

Salah seorang korban jiwa dalam serangan di kota sebelah tenggara Turki itu adalah seorang anak laki-laki berusia enam tahun. Sedikitnya sembilan orang menderita cedera serius dalam serangan tersebut.

Siaran televisi memperlihatkan asap dan debu dari puing-puing mengepul. Sementara para penduduk berlarian membantu korban yang selamat.

Walikota Akcakale, Abdulhakim Ayhan mengatakan, tembakan meriam Suriah itu menghantam sebuah rumah di kawasan permukiman.

"Meriam mendarat di tengah kawasan penduduk dan menghantam sebuah rumah. Tiga orang tewas, kami mendapat informasinya dari rumah sakit," tuturnya kepada kantor berita AP.

Serangan ke kawasan Turki yang dekat dengan perbatasan Suriah bukan yang pertama kalinya terjadi. Namun baru kali ini jatuh korban jiwa.

Jumat pekan lalu, sebuah meriam juga ditembakkan ke Akcakale, namun tidak sampai menyebabkan korban jiwa. Diduga serangan dilakukan oleh militan yang setia kepada Presiden Suriah, Bashar al-Assad.

Para pejabat sudah meminta agar warga tidak mendekati garis perbatasan dan sekolah-sekolah sudah tutup selama dua pekan terakhir sebagai tindakan berjaga-jaga.



A mortar bomb fired from Syria landed in a residential district of the southeastern Turkish town of Akçakale on Wednesday, killing a woman and four children from the same family and wounding at least 13 other people.

A cloud of dust and smoke rose up over low-rise buildings as residents ran to help the wounded. Others, infuriated by the increasing spillover of violence from Syria's civil war, took to the streets shouting protests against the local authorities.

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu phoned UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to brief him about the incident and also spoke with senior military officials and Syria crisis mediator Lakhdar Brahimi, his ministry said in a statement.

Davutoğlu signaled over the weekend that Turkey would take action if there was a repeat of a mortar strike which damaged homes and workplaces in Akçakale last Friday.

"It (latest mortar round) hit right in the middle of the neighbourhood. The wife and four children from the same family died," Ahmet Emin Meşhurgül, local head of the Turkish Red Crescent, told Reuters, adding he knew the victims personally.

"People here are anxious, because we got hit before. Security forces tried to convince people to empty the neighbourhood near the border, but now we've been hit right in the middle of the town," he said.

A Reuters witness saw three police officers among the wounded being taken to hospital.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan long cultivated good relations with Assad but became a harsh critic after Syria's popular revolt began last year, accusing him of creating a "terrorist state". Erdoğan has allowed Syrian opposition fighters to organize on Turkish soil and pushed for a foreign-protected safe zone inside Syria.