Turkish artillery strikes back after Syrian mortar bomb hit

Turkish artillery struck back at Syria on Wednesday after a Syrian mortar bomb landed on Turkish territory, local sources quoted by news agency Anatolia said. Border troops in the Hatay province fired off a mortar strike at Syria, in retaliation for the Syrian bomb which struck Turkish territory at around 1315 GMT, the office of Hatay's governor said in a statement quoted by Anatolia. The Syrian mortar landed three metres (yards) from the Syrian border and just 150 metres away from a farm, but did not cause any casualties or damages. Turkey has for more than 10 days retaliated systematically on each occasion that its border with Syria has been violated by mortar bombs from across the frontier. Ankara has taken an increasingly strident line towards its southern neighbour since a shell fired from the Syrian side of the border killed five Turks on October 3.