Turkey continued its attack on Syrian targets for the second consecutive day Thursday after a mortar firing from Syria killed five civilians in a Turkish town Wednesday.

The Turkish government announced that its troops hit targets in Syria. Turkey, a member of the NATO military alliance, said that its response was based on the international laws.

"There has been an attack on Turkey's mainland and its citizens lost their lives. There are definitely a response to it in international law. Turkey is a NATO member. Certain NATO treaty articles bring about certain liabilities when one of its members is attacked. We are not blinded by rage but we will protect our rights to the end in the face of such an attack on our soil that killed our people," Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc was quoted as saying by Reuters.

According to a media reports, several Syrian soldiers were killed in the retaliatory strikes by the Turkish military. The shelling by the Turkish military from the border town of Akcakale continued Thursday morning.

Turkey approached the United Nations seeking appropriate actions against Syria.

In another development, Turkey’s parliament met in a closed session to debate and pass a bill that would allow the government to deploy the military to undertake cross-border operations into Syria.

Though the Turkish government has clarified that it doesn’t expect the current violence to escalate into a full-fledged war with the Syria, the government intends to give a serious warning to Damascus against any kind of attack on its people and assets.

An aide to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told the Associated Press Thursday on condition of anonymity that Turkey had no intention of declaring a war on Syria but that the bill being debated in parliament was intended to give "Syria a warning."

Meanwhile, the Syrian government conveyed its condolences to the Turkish people and said that it was investigating the source of the fatal attack.