ANKARA: Turkish artillery struck back on Friday after a shell fired from neighbouring Syria ploughed into Turkish territory without causing any casualties, the state-run news agency reported.

The shell fell near the town of Yayladag in Hatay province near the border with Syria and Turkish forces retaliated immediately, Anatolia said.

Since Syrian fire killed five Turks on October 3, Turkey has systematically retaliated to every cross-border shelling.

On Monday, 14 people were killed when a minibus packed with explosives blew up in a buffer zone between Syria's and Turkey's border.

One-time allies Turkey and Syria fell out after Ankara joined Arab and Western countries in pressing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to halt his violent crackdown on the popular uprising that erupted in March 2011 and has now turned into a civil war.