This photo taken on July 20, 2015 shows the scene
after an explosion in the town of Suruc in Sanliurfa, on July 20, 2015,
not far from the Syrian border..
(photo credit:AFP PHOTO)
An explosion outside a cultural center in the Turkish town of Suruc near
the border with Syria killed at least 27 people and wounded many more
on Monday, in what senior officials said may have been a suicide bombing
by Islamic State militants.
Television footage showed bodies
lying beneath trees outside the building in the mostly Kurdish town in
southeastern Turkey, some 10 km (6 miles) from the Syrian town of
Kobani,
where Kurdish fighters have been battling Islamic State.
"Our initial evidence shows that this was a suicide attack by Islamic State," one senior official in Ankara told Reuters.
A
second official also said Islamic State appeared to have been
responsible and that the attack was a "retaliation for the Turkish
government's efforts to fight terrorism."
NATO member Turkey's interior ministry said 27 people were killed and around 100 wounded. The death toll could rise.
"I
saw more than 20 bodies. I think the number of wounded is more than 50.
They are still being put into ambulances," one witness told Reuters by
telephone, giving his name as Mehmet. "It was a huge explosion, we all
shook."
The explosion comes weeks after Turkey deployed
additional troops and equipment along parts of its border with Syria,
concerned about the risk of spillover as fighting between Kurdish
forces, rebel groups, Syrian government troops and Islamic State
militants intensifies.
Turkey's leaders have said they do not
plan any unilateral military incursion into Syria but have also said
they will do whatever necessary to defend the country's borders.
Ankara
fears any disorder in the border area could re-ignite an armed Kurdish
separatist rebellion that has killed some 40,000 since 1984. It would
also concern Western allies who seek greater controls on a porous
frontier that serves as a frontline in the battle against Islamic State
Pervin
Buldan, a senior lawmaker from Turkey's pro-Kurdish HDP opposition
party, said local officials were investigating the possibility that the
explosion was a suicide bombing.
The Hurriyet newspaper said on
its website that the suicide bomber was an 18-year old woman, but there
was no independent confirmation of this.
REBUILDING KOBANI
Buldan
said the blast happened as Turkish and Kurdish youths gathered at the
cultural center ahead of a planned trip to Kobani, which was secured by
Syrian Kurdish fighters last month after an assault by Islamic State.
Kobani
was the site of one of the biggest battles against Islamic State last
year. Syrian Kurdish forces, known as the YPG, drove the Islamic
militants back from the town with the help of US air strikes, after
months of fighting and siege.
Turkey's Kurds were enraged at the time by Ankara's refusal to intervene to stop the Islamic State siege.
"Turkish
and Kurdish youth had come to cross into Kobani, and there were three
or four days of activities planned," Buldan told Reuters, adding that
HDP lawmakers were on their way to the scene.
The group - the
Federation of Socialist Youth Associations - had been planning a trip to
Kobani to build a library, plant a forest and build a playground in the
town, Fatma Edemen, a member of the group wounded in the blast, told
Reuters.
"We defended it together and we will rebuild it together," read one of its banners at the scene.
Sources
in Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu's office said he had ordered Deputy
Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus, as well as the interior and labor
ministers, to go to Suruc.
A video posted on Facebook by one of
the group of youth activists showed at least 20 people lying on the
ground, some still alive. People milled about trying to comfort the
wounded, as others cried out. Smoke and dust rose from the ground.
A hospital source made an urgent request for blood donations.
"Ambulances
and private cars are picking up the wounded...I am going to the
hospital to help out," Adham Basho, a local politician, told Reuters by
telephone as sirens wailed in the background.
Several internet service providers in Turkey blocked access to Twitter
on Wednesday in line with a local court ruling to prevent the
distribution of images of a suicide bombing two days ago, a senior state
official said.
The official said the communications technologies
authority, the BTK, was not involved in the ban and that efforts were
underway to have it lifted.
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