ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Turkish and coalition forces bombed Islamic State (ISIS) positions and killed an estimated 40 militants in northern Syria on Sunday, in response to cross-border rocket attacks into Turkey by the militants. The airstrikes also took out four Katyusha rocket launchers, two ammunition depots and as many armored vehicles belonging to ISIS, Turkey’s official Anadolu Agency news reported. The airstrikes came a day after two rockets from Syria hit the Oguzeli district of Turkey’s southeastern Gaziantep, near the city’s international airport. No casualties were reported. It was not clear if the rockets were a result of stray fire from clashes over the border in Syria or another deliberate ISIS attack. The strikes also come a day after the Turkish General Staff claimed the military killed 104 ISIS militants in cross-border artillery, rocket and tank fire in retaliation to an ISIS rocket attack on Turkey's Kilis border region on Friday, which left five people wounded. ISIS has been rocketing Kilis since January. The Turkish military has been responding with artillery to such attacks, which to date have killed 21 civilians in Turkey. The US coalition has been using Turkey’s strategically important southeastern Incirlik airbase to strike ISIS in Syria. The US operates unmanned drones from the base, equipped with Hellfire air-to-surface missiles, along with A-10 ground attack planes. Turkey has urged the coalition in recent weeks to step-up its retaliation to ISIS rocket fire by using drones, which are more capable of taking out mobile ISIS rocket launchers than artillery.
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