Turkish army announced on Thursday it had shelled positions held by extremist militants in Syria, in retaliation for a mortar round that fell on Turkish territory.

Turkish army announced on Thursday it had shelled positions held by extremist militants in Syria, in retaliation for a mortar round that fell on Turkish territory.

"Four artillery rounds were fired on October 15 against a position near the town of Azaz held by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)," an Al-Qaeda affiliated group, the army chief of staff said in a statement late Wednesday.

The shelling came in response to a mortar round that was fired from militants in Syria and fell without detonating near a police post inside Turkey, it said.
It is the first time that Turkey has specifically targeted extremist militants who are fighting the Syrian government.

Al-Qaeda in Syria is fighting to drive rivals, within the armed groups fighting Damascus government) out of areas bordering Turkey and Iraq in a bid to control territory stretching from Iraq into northern Syria, observers say.

Across the north and east, the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has set up checkpoints on roads to border crossings, and opened fronts to crush other armed groups.