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4 killed in rocket barrage from Syria, including 3 children

 

 

Four people were killed, including three children, in southern Turkey on Monday — the third day of rocket and artillery fire from Syrian government controlled areas — as Syrian rebels launched a new offensive in the country's northwest.

The attacks come as representatives of the Western-backed Syrian opposition met in Geneva for indirect talks with the Syrian government. Each side accused the other of violating the partial cease-fire that began Feb. 27.

The governor's office in the province of Kilis said four rockets hit the town of Kilis, where Syrian refugees outnumber the local population. A 40-year-old shepherd was killed near a middle school, and six others were wounded, according to the Hurriet Daily News. Projectiles struck also hitting an olive garden and an oxygen depot of the Kilis State Hospital.

The shell came from a region controlled by the Syrian army, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency reported. The Turkish Army responded with artillery fire across the border. Twelve people were wounded on April 11, and two people were killed on April 12, Hurriet reported. 

On Monday, rebels launched an attack against Syrian government forces in Latakia province, on the Mediterranean coast, and made separate advances further east in Hama, while there were heavy government airstrikes in Homs province to the south, according to Reuters. 

The opposition's chief coordinator in Geneva, Riyad Hijab, said continuing the negotiations was unacceptable so long as the government and its allies continued to lay siege and to bomb civilian areas.

The talks are aimed at a political transition for Syria that would bring an end to five years of fighting that has left at least 270,000 people dead, mostly at the hands of the government, according to international observers. 

The Syrian government's chief negotiator, Bashar Ja'afari on Monday accused Israel, on Syria's southern border, of cooperating with Islamic State and al-Qaeda militants in the Golan Heights, territory Israel has occupied since 1967. Ja'afari did not provide any evidence to support his allegation, but said a festive cabinet meeting held Sunday in the Golan by Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was evidence enough.

"This Israeli provocation... confirms without any doubt the cooperation between Israel and terrorists," Ja'afari said after meeting U.N. mediator Staffan de Mistura, the Associated Press reported.

De Mistura, on Friday floated the idea of Syrian President Bashar Assad remaining in power symbolically in exchange for the opposition naming three Syrian vice presidents. The opposition rejected the proposal.

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