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Turkish mortars killed one 12-year-old boy and ripped off a young girl’s leg as Turkey pummeled Kurdish-held towns on the second day of its assault on northern Syria on Thursday, The Telegraph reports.

Muhammad Yusuf Hussein and his 7-year-old sister Sarah were hit in a strike on Qamishli, the de facto capital of the unrecognised Kurdish statelet of Rojava.    

On the other side of the border, Turkish authorities said four children including a nine-month old baby had been killed in retaliatory fire.

They were the youngest of at least 15 civilians killed in artillery and airstrikes in Turkey's bid to create a "safe zone" in a large swathe of territory controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-led militia.

Turkey considers the Kurdish YPG, the dominant force in the SDF, to be an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has fought a decades long insurgency against Ankara and is considered a terrorist organisation by Turkey and Nato allies including Britain.  

Witnesses said there was intense shelling in both directions around Ras al Ain and Tal Abyad, the two key border towns that anchor a 60-mile stretch of border where Turkey is making its main assault. 

Erdogan claimed 109 "terrorists" were killed in the offensive, a reference to the Syrian Kurdish fighters.