Turkey's cabinet agrees on four-point plan for under-fire Kilis, says deputy PM

The cabinet has agreed on a "four-point plan" for the southeastern border province of Kilis, where 17 people have been killed by a total of 46 Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) rockets in recent days, according to Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmu?.

"Under the chairmanship of our prime minister, our relevant ministers, top security officials, our Chief of Staff, the M?T [National Intelligence Organization], and other relevant bureaucrats held a long meeting to discuss measures that need to be taken after recent incidents in Kilis," Kurtulmu? told reporters late on April 25.

The participants agreed on a four-point plan that foresees swiftly implemented military and economic measures alongside additional healthcare services and psychological assistance, he said. 

Kurtulmu? said Turkey will ramp up its military presence along the border with Syria and increase its cross-border surveillance capabilities by deploying additional drones and other vehicles. 

"We will therefore know of planned attacks on Kilis, on Turkey, in advance," he said, stressing that ISIL's Katyusha rockets are fired from trucks that are not stationed at fixed spots, making them difficult to locate and destroy. 

"[The army] retaliates as soon as such movable rockets are detected. It destroys DAESH [ISIL] positions promptly, but as these are different from stationed positions it is almost impossible to target them immediately," he added. 

The economic measures agreed by the cabinet consist of compensating for the economic losses of tradesmen whose stores or workplaces have sustained damage due to rockets from across the border. Accordingly, the Prime Ministry will pay 10 million liras to the Kilis Governor's Office in two installments...