Zeenews Bureau
Ankara: Furious over Damascus in light of the recent shelling that killed five Turk civilians, Turkey's Parliament authorised military operations against Syria on Thursday.
However, Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay said the Bill passed was a deterrent and not a mandate for war.
“Turkey has no interest in a war with Syria. But Turkey is capable of protecting its borders and will retaliate when necessary," Ibrahim Kalin, chief adviser to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said on Twitter.
Meanwhile, Turkish firing on Syrian targets in retaliation to shelling continued for the second day on Thursday.
Turkey said Syria has admitted it was responsible for the shelling and apologised for the deaths. Atalay said Syria has reassured the UN that "such an incident will not occur again."
Syrian shelling overreached the border and landed on a home in the Turkish village of Akcakale, killing a woman, her three daughters and another woman, and wounding at least 10 others, according to Turkish media.
Indignated by Syrian shelling at a border village, Turkey also lodged a strong protest with NATO prompting National Atlantic Council to convene an emergency meeting in Brussels Wednesday night at Turkey's request to discuss the cross-border incident.
The meeting ended with a statement strongly condemning the attack and saying: "The alliance continues to stand by Turkey and demands the immediate cessation of such aggressive acts against an ally." It also urged the Syrian regime to "put an end to flagrant violations of international law."
First Published: Thursday, October 04, 2012, 14:11