Rescuers clean up ruins in a mosque which was hit by a rocket fired from Syria, in Kilis, Turkey, on Jan. 24, 2018. Two people were killed and 12 others wounded after two rockets launched from Syria's Afrin hit Turkey's border city of Kilis on Wednesday, the local governor said. (Xinhua)
ANKARA, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- Two people were killed and 12 others wounded after two rockets launched from Syria's Afrin hit Turkey's border city of Kilis on Wednesday, a local governor said.
"The first rockets hit a mosque during prayers. Some of the victims have life-threatening injuries," the Province Governor Mehmet Tekinarslan said on NTV television.
The second rocket hit a residential house 100 meters from the mosque, and at least five people were affected by the smoke, the governor said.
All those injured have already been sent to the hospital, he added.
According to local media, the first attack happened at around 18:10 local time (1510 GMT), and the second happened 25 minutes later.
The attacked mosque is located approximately 6 km far from the Turkish-Syrian border.
Ambulances and emergency teams has been dispatched to the site, and security forces is clearing surrounding area.
As Turkey's operation against the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia in Afrin entered its fifth day, several rockets have hit the Turkish border towns of Kilis and Reyhanli, killing one Syria refugee and wounding dozens of other civilians.
Turkish forces on Saturday launched "Operation Olive Branch" in Syria's Afrin to fight the Kurdish militia, targeting the YPG elements in the Kurdish enclave with Free Syrian Army fighters through airstrikes and land forces.
YPG is the military wing of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), a group in northern Syria that Ankara has deemed a "terror group" for its links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party.
