Turkey renews shelling of Syria

Turkey defied international calls and shelled parts of northern Syria for a third day yesterday, insisting it would not allow Kurdish-led forces to seize key areas along the border.

The renewed shelling and fresh violence elsewhere in Syria -- including a suspected Russian air strike that killed 23 people at three hospitals and a school -- cast doubts on international efforts for a ceasefire to take hold this week.

The Turkish assault continued despite calls from its Western allies for restraint and drew fierce criticism yesterday from Russia, which said the "provocative" shelling was "creating a threat to peace and security in the Middle East and beyond."

The cross-border Turkish artillery fire, which began on Saturday, has added to an increasingly complex situation in Syria's northern Aleppo province just days before the ceasefire is due to begin.

Top diplomats from world powers agreed at talks in Munich last Friday on a "nationwide cessation of hostilities" within a week, in the latest bid to find an end to Syria's five-year conflict.

But advances in recent days by mainly Kurdish forces in Aleppo province have raised deep concern in Ankara, which accuses them of links to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), an outlawed movement that waged a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state.

Following similar fire on Saturday and Sunday, Turkish shelling again hit several parts of Aleppo province yesterday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group.

The Turkish government denied claims that it had sent troops into northern Syria, where the regime backed by the Russian air force has launched a major campaign, state-run Anatolia news agency said yesterday, quoting the defence minister, reports AFP.

"It is not true," Ismet Yilmaz told parliament on Sunday night when asked whether Turkish soldiers had intervened in the fighting in the Syrian province of Aleppo. "The Turkish military has no intention of intervening in Syria."

Meanwhile, at least 23 civilians were killed when missiles hit three hospitals and a school in the rebel-held Syrian town of Azaz near the Turkish border yesterday, a medic and two residents said.

They said at least five missiles hit the hospital in the town centre and a nearby school, where refugees fleeing a major Syrian army offensive were sheltering. A resident said another refugee shelter south of the town was also hit by bombs dropped by jets believed to be Russian.

"We have been moving scores of screaming children from the hospital," said medic Juma Rahal. At least two children were killed and ambulances ferried scores of injured people to Turkey for treatment, he said.

French charity Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said in a statement that at least eight staff were missing after four rockets hit a hospital that it supported in the province of Idlib in north western Syria, reports Reuters.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview that Moscow does not plan to maintain its military presence in Syria indefinitely.

"We have no plans... for such a never-ending presence in Syria. We are there pursuing an entirely limited, concrete objective," Medvedev said, according to a transcript of the interview released by the government.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu yesterday accused Russia of acting as a "terrorist organisation" in Syria and vowed to deliver a robust response.

"If Russia continues behaving like a terrorist organisation and forcing civilians to flee, we will deliver an extremely decisive response," Davutoglu told reporters in Kiev, speaking through an official translator.

Ankara has vowed to keep carrying out the strikes despite criticism from Western allies in the US-led coalition, with the spiralling disagreements making the prospects of a ceasefire set to start next month increasingly unlikely.