INFOGRAPHIC - Turkey: 52 PYD/PKK rockets target civilians

By Mehmet Kemal Firik

HATAY, Turkey (AA) - Five civilians and 73 others, including children have been injured over the last 10 days when the PYD/PKK terrorists fired 52 rockets and mortar shells from Syria's northwestern Afrin region at Turkey's bordering provinces of Kilis and Hatay.

Since the launch of Turkey's Operation Olive Branch on Jan. 20 to clear terrorists from Syria's Afrin region, the PYD/PKK terror group has carried out 22 cross border attacks on Kilis city center and 30 rocket and mortar firing incidents have been carried out in Hatay's Reyhanli, Hassa and Kirikhan districts' civilian neighborhoods.

In attacks carried out on civilian neighborhoods, five people, including 2 Syrian civilians were killed and 73 others, including children were injured.

Fatma Avlar, 17, and a Syrian asylum seeker Nader Al Fares, 51, died at the hospital from wounds sustained in a cross-border rocket attack in Reyhanli.

A total of 28 mortar shells has landed in civilian neighborhoods at Hatay's Reyhanli district; two rockets landed on the outskirts of Hassa and a mortar shell struck Kirikhan.

Sahin Elitas, a 30-year-old Turkish Electricity Distribution Company (TEDAS) worker, also died when mortar shells hit Hatay's Kirikhan district; 51 others were injured in the incident.

In the attacks on Reyhanli, 11 houses and 15 offices were damaged; 20 vehicles were also destroyed.

-Mosques hit

Prior to Turkish military and Free Syrian Army's capture of Mt. Bursaya in northern Syria, the PYD/PKK had frequently used Mt. Bursaya to target civilians in the center of Kilis province and Syria’s Azaz district through mortar shells, artillery and missiles.

The 22 rockets fired by terrorists struck a mosque, several houses and neighborhoods in Kilis.

In terrorist attacks carried out from Afrin on Kilis, five houses, a mosque and six vehicles were damaged.

Two civilians, one of whom was a Syrian refugee, were killed and 22 others injured in attacks on a town.

Two civilians -- Muzaffer Aydemir, 72, and Tariq Tabbaq, 28 -- were killed and six others injured when a rocket fired by PYD/PKK terrorists from Syria struck Calik Mosque in Kilis at around 6.10 p.m. (1510GMT) on Jan. 24.