Rockets from Syria sow despair in Turkish border town

"Today it fell here but it could also have fallen on my house," said Ahmet Olgun, staring at a gaping hole in the roof of a two-storey house, ripped open by a deadly rocket attack launched from Syria on Wednesday.

A crowd of residents looked on at the building's remains; the back-half still largely intact, but a twisted mesh of metal and concrete at the front, with a TV satellite dish hanging in the air.

For Olgun, a 23-year-old pharmacist, and other residents of the town, rockets and mortar strikes have become a routine part of daily life.

Dozens have been fired in the last 11 days. Five rockets hit on Wednesday.

"There needs to be a solution to this," demanded Huseyin Filiz, a local official in the neighbourhood of Gultepe.

"Our neighbourhood was hit two days ago, yesterday and also today."

Despite the bombardment and growing number of casualties, every local questioned by AFP said they supported the Turkish-led Operation Olive Branch against the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), which is designated a terrorist group by Ankara.

But many also felt abandoned by the state.

"I am being asked not to let the people go on the streets. But the rockets are also hitting the houses," said Filiz, whose face showed signs of fatigue.

"I am calling on the government to take care of Reyhanli," he said.

- 'Do you want to die?'-

Outside the damaged building, a crew of municipality workers arrived with brooms in their hands and, in less than 10 minutes, the debris that blocked the streets was cleared into a dump truck.

Their effort was in vain. Shortly after they finished cleaning, an explosion rang out across the town.

Two more rockets fired from Syria had just landed some 300 metres away.

The siren of an ambulance was soon heard as it sped towards the strike area.

One rocket landed in the middle of a road, causing a crater and injuring a man, who was taken away.

Police and army vehicles also soon arrived.

"Two this morning and two more now," a security officer grumbled while taping off the road, creating a security perimeter.

"Why are you standing here? You want to die or what?" he shouted at pedestrians who had gathered nearby.

'We are not scared'

Some resident have already fled to other towns and cities further from the Syrian border, but many people are unwilling or unable to leave their homes.

"Those who can afford it are leaving but those who cannot have no other option but to stay," Filiz said.

"If we are asked to take part in the war, we will take up arms, we are not scared," he added.

He is one of the residents worried about the impact of a possible strike on one of the petrol stations in the town.

"They need to be emptied because if a rocket falls on them, it will set all of Reyhanli on fire," said Filiz.

Anxious parents were also concerned. The winter school holidays end in Turkey in the next couple of days and children are due back in classrooms.

"I have five children and three of them will be going back to school in a few days. They are scared and cannot sleep at night," said a man, wearing an olive-coloured cap and leather jacket.

"My family has taken a blow psychologically. We do not know what will be falling on us nor when."