Dramatic developments are occurring in regards to the crisis and Civil War in Syria.
Earlier today, neighboring Turkey had said that mortars from Syria, which killed a mother and three children within Turkey, according to multiple reports. The situation has prompted a possible international crisis, as Turkey is a NATO member.
Now, Turkey has now retaliated directly.
Turkey Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a statement that Turkey has shelled selected targets in Syria.
"Our armed forces in the border region responded immediately to this abominable attack in line with their rules of engagement; targets were struck through artillery fire against places in Syria identified by radar," the statement said.
"Turkey will never leave unanswered such kinds of provocation by the Syrian regime against our national security."
According to the semiofficial Anatolian News Agency, "Targets were shelled in locations identified by radar.”
The attacks on Turkey comes the same day as a series of bombings in Syria's largest city, Aleppo, killed at least 40 people.
The Turkish foreign minister has issued a formal complaint to the United Nations and its secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon. NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen on the need for an emergency meeting of NATO members, the statement said.
This raises very interesting international global security issues.
If the U.S. was looking for an international legal justification for intervening in Syria, it may have just found one.
And even if not, they may be required to by international law.
Reuters reports that Turkey's foreign minister has contacted NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Wednesday after a mortar, which was fired from within Syria, killed a woman and four children in the southeastern Turkish city of Akçakale.
Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister — according to the Cihan news agency — stated that "Syria must be made to account for the incident and there must be a response under international law."
While the NATO charter explicitly states that "the Parties undertake, as set forth in the Charter of the United Nations, to settle any international dispute in which they may be involved by peaceful means," Article 5 stipulates:
The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence recognized by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.
Any such armed attack and all measures taken as a result thereof shall immediately be reported to the Security Council. Such measures shall be terminated when the Security Council has taken the measures necessary to restore and maintain international peace and security.
Russia has since urged NATO to refrain from interfering.
Please follow Military & Defense on Twitter and Facebook.