Turkey: Blast Kills 28, Injures Scores near Syrian Border
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – An explosion in Turkey's southeastern city of Suruc near the Syrian border killed 28 people and sent nearly 100 others to the hospital on Monday, Turkish officials said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the midday blast.
The prime minister's office gave the casualty toll in a phone call to The Associated Press.
Suruc is just across the border from the Syrian city of Kobane, the scene of fierce battles between Kurdish groups and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorist group.
Kobane was the ISIL's biggest defeat last year since the militants established control over large swathes of Iraq and Syria. The city has become a symbol of Kurdish resistance.
A second bomb went off Monday south of Kobane near a Kurdish militia checkpoint on the road to Syria's largest city of Aleppo, according to a Kurdish official in Kobane, Idriss Naasan.
It caused minor damage and no casualties, he said.
The private Turkish DHA news agency said the blast in Suruc occurred at a cultural center while a political group was holding a news conference on Kobane's reconstruction. News reports said 300 people from the Federation of Socialist Youths were staying at the cultural center and were preparing to travel to Kobane to help with the rebuilding.
Kobane was also the scene of surprise ISIL attacks last month that killed more than 200 people.
