Turkey has deployed mobile rocket artillery in the northern Syrian town of al-Bab in order to strike Islamic State targets.

The T-122 Sakarya multiple launch rocket system was spotted near al-Bab. The T-122 is a Turkish multiple launch rocket system developed by Roketsan.

The system consists of two pods of 122-mm launch tubes which are hydraulically traversed and elevated. It is equipped with a state-of-the-art fire control system which calculates firing data automatically for rockets with different warheads and is capable of storing up to 20 target coordinates.

The vehicle can fire rockets singly or in salvo, with a full forty rocket launch taking less than 80 seconds and blanketing a target area of 500 m × 500 m. In addition the later versions of the T-122 features an integral hydraulic crane which allows reloading of rockets pods within five minutes.

Turkey’s military said on Friday it was close to taking the northern Syrian city of al-Bab from Islamic State, a victory that would deepen Turkish influence in an area where it has created a de facto buffer zone.

Al-Bab, an Islamic State stronghold 30 km (20 miles) from the border, has been a key target in an offensive launched by Turkey last August to push the jihadists away from its frontier and prevent gains by a Kurdish militia also fighting them.