Rocket fire from Syria kills 1, wounds 26 in Turkish border town

Five rocket projectiles fired from across the border in Syria hit a Turkish border town on Sunday, killing one person and wounding 26 others, Turkey's deputy prime minister said.

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Yalcin Akdogan, who was visiting the southern town of Kilis, said two rockets struck a poor neighbourhood near the town centre in the morning, slightly injuring six Syrian refugees and 10 Turkish nationals. Three more hit Kilis in late afternoon, killing one person and wounding 10 others.

The deputy premier said 45 rocket rounds have been fired at Kilis since Jan. 18, killing 16 people including Sunday's fatality. At least 62 people have been wounded since then. The town is home to around 110,000 Syrian refugees.

The Turkish military systematically responds by firing back at targets in Syria in line with its rules of engagement and Akdogan said Turkish artillery "immediately" retaliated to the rocket fire on Sunday.

"Their intervention is continuing," Akdogan said in televised comments.

The wider province of Kilis borders areas in Syria that are hotly contested by Syrian anti-government rebels, Kurdish factions and Islamic State militants. The governor for Kilis has said that the rocket projectiles have mostly been fired from ISIS-controlled territory.

News reports said police used water cannons on Sunday to disperse Kilis residents who had gathered near the governor's office to demand greater protection.

"I cannot sleep, my son wakes up with nightmares, he cannot sleep. We aren't safe here. We are afraid to stay in our houses," one 46-year-old woman told Reuters.

Merkel calls for 'safe zones'

Visiting the nearby city of Gaziantep on Saturday, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu promised that all necessary measures would be taken to prevent more rocket fire.

He was accompanied by EU Council President Donald Tusk andGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel, who had been expected to visit Kilis last weekend but the location and timing of the visit were changed.

Merkel said on Saturday she favoured establishing "safe zones" to shelter refugees in Syria. At a news conference with U.S. President Barack Obama on Sunday she said these could be agreed areas where civilians could feel free from bombardment, rather than zones protected by foreign forces.

The militants come to the border on motorcycles and then fire rockets at Kilis, Turkish officials have said. Turkish howitzers at the border have a difficult time firing on the mobile targets.

Officials have said Turkey may call on allies in the U.S.-led coalition to take stronger action in its campaign against Islamic State along the border.