Turkey returns fire after Syrian bomb crosses border Turkish military take position in Akcakale on the border with Syria. Turkey has returned fire after a mortar bomb shot from Syria landed in a field in southern Turkey. The exchange came the day after Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, warned Damascus that his country would not shy away from war if provoked. It was the fourth day of Turkish strikes in retaliation for mortar bombs and shelling by Syrian forces that killed five Turkish civilians further east on Wednesday. The strikes and counter-strikes are the most serious cross-border violence in Syria's conflict, which began as a pro-democracy uprising but has evolved into a civil war with sectarian overtones. They highlight how the crisis could destabilise the region. Nato member Turkey, once an ally of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, but now a leading voice in calls for him to quit, has nearly 100,000 Syrian refugees in camps on its territory and has allowed rebel leaders sanctuary. Its armed forces are far larger than Syria's. Erdogan said on Friday his country did not want war but warned Syria not to make a "fatal mistake" by testing its resolve. Damascus has said its fire hit Turkey accidentally. The Hatay provincial governor's office said the round fired from Syria on Saturday hit empty land near the village of Guvecci in Yayladagi district, 50 metres inside Turkey, at 7am. "It is assessed that the shell was fired by Syrian Arab Republic security forces at opposition forces along the border," a statement on its website said. There was no loss of life in the incident. The Guvecci border post retaliated in kind with four rounds from 81mm mortars. The Dogan news agency said another mortar round from Syria landed around 50 metres from an observation tower near Guvecci around 11am and smoke rose from the area. There were no immediate reports of casualties or retaliation but a response was expected. Dogan said the governor's office had warned people in the area not to go out on balconies or spend time in open places. It said the Red Crescent was offering psychological support to people in the area. There were two similar incidents in Hatay on Friday. "Those who attempt to test Turkey's deterrence, its decisiveness, its capacity, I say here they are making a fatal mistake," Erdogan said in a bellicose speech to a crowd in Istanbul on Friday afternoon. We are not interested in war, but we're not far from war either. This nation has come to where it is today having gone through intercontinental wars," he said. Turkish artillery bombarded Syrian military targets on Wednesday and Thursday, killing several Syrian soldiers after Syria's initial fatal bombardment. The UN security council condemned the original Syrian attack and demanded that such violations of international law stop immediately, while Turkey's parliament authorised cross-border military action in the event of further aggression.