ANKARA // An explosion Monday killed at least 27 people in the Turkish city of Suruc near the Syrian border, Turkey’s interior ministry said.
At least 100 people were injured and are being treated in hospital.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, but the Turkish ministry said it was ‘terrorist attack’.
“A terrorist attack took place in the town of Suruc in Sanliurfa today around 12pm local time (1pm UAE),” the interior ministry said in a statement. “Twenty-seven citizens lost their lives according to initial findings.
“We are calling on all for common sense in the face of this terrorist attack targeting our country’s unity.”
Suruc is just across the border from the Syrian city of Kobani, the scene of fierce battles between Kurdish forces and ISIL militants. Kobani was ISIL’s biggest defeat last year since it established control over large swathes of Iraq and Syria and has become a symbol of Kurdish resistance against the group.
A Kurdish official in Kobani, Idriss Naasan, said a second bomb went off in the Syrian town, causing minor damage and no casualties. The explosion occurred south of Kobani near a Kurdish militia checkpoint on the road to Aleppo.
DHA said the blast in Suruc occurred at a cultural centre where a political group was giving a statement to the press on Kobani’s reconstruction.
News reports said 300 people from the Federation of Socialist Youths association were staying at the centre and were preparing to travel to Kobani to help with the rebuilding.
Kobani was also the scene of surprise ISIL attacks last month that killed more than 200 people.
* Associated Press and Agence France-Presse
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