Turkey deploys military units in Kilis after DAESH shelling

The Turkish military has increased its presence in Kilis, a southern border province, which DAESH has recently been targeting with cross-border rocket fire from the territory it controls in northern Syria.

Turkey will take additional military measures after suffering 46 artillery attacks from DAESH-controlled territory in Syria since January, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Tuesday during a meeting of the governing Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in Turkey's Parliament.

Turkish media reported on Tuesday that at least 17 people have been killed and scores of other wounded in Kilis since the beginning of the year by repeated rocket attacks.

The United States will deploy a missile system in Turkey along the Syrian border across which DAESH-held areas have been laying out as part of a strategy to seal off a region around the Syrian town of Manbij, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was quoted as saying on Tuesday.

Cavusoglu, quoted by the Haberturk newspaper, said the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) would arrive in May near a part of southeastern Turkey that has repeatedly been hit by rocket fire from Syria.

"We have reached an agreement with the Americans to seal off the Manbij region and our strategy on that is clear," Cavusoglu told the newspaper in an interview during a trip to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia.

"As part of this deal, the HIMARS systems will be arriving in Turkey's borders in May. Therefore, we will be able to hit DAESH in a more efficient way," he said.

Turkey's military said on Monday that it destroyed DAESH's missile launcher in Syria some 20 kms from Kilis, which has seen its population of nearly 90,000 doubled after the escalation of Syrian conflict and is now reportedly hosting 127,000 refugees.

They said eight DAESH terrorists were killed in the attack. The missile launcher was placed 6 kilometres from the border, the military reportedly said.