ISTANBUL // Suspected ISIL suicide bombers blew themselves up on Sunday during an anti-terror raid in the south-eastern Turkish city of Gaziantep killing three police officers.
The bombers detonated their explosives to avoid being captured during an operation by Turkish security forces in the city which lies close to the Syrian border, state-run news agency Anadolu reported.
Local governor Ali Yerlikaya said three police officers died during the incident, Anadolu said, with witnesses telling private NTV television they heard gunfire and clashes in the area largely populated by university students.
Another eight people were wounded in the incident, four of them Syrians, the governor said.
Mr Yerlikaya said the raid took place after Turkish authorities gathered intelligence about a possible suicide bomb attack by a suspected ISIL "sleeper cell" in Gaziantep.
Since summer 2015, Turkey has suffered a string of attacks in Gaziantep and elsewhere blamed on ISIL and Kurdish militants.
In August, a deadly suicide bombing at a Kurdish wedding in the city killed 57 people, 34 of them children. The attack was blamed on ISIL militants.
The following month, the United States warned of the risk of a terror attack in Gaziantep on businesses frequented by westerners, including the popular coffee chain Starbucks.
The US embassy in Ankara also warned its citizens that Turkish police were investigating a possible "terror cell" in Gaziantep at that time.
* Agence France-Presse
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