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Turkey Calls Deadly Blast at Suruc, Near Syria, a Terrorist Attack Turkey Says Suicide Bombing Kills Dozens in Town Near Syria
(about 3 hours later)
ISTANBUL — A large explosion at a cultural center in the Turkish town of Suruc, near Syria, on Monday killed at least 28 people and wounded 100 others, the prime minister’s office said. ISTANBUL — A suicide bombing hit a cultural center in a Turkish town near the Syrian border on Monday, killing at least 30 and wounding more than 100 in an attack that Turkey’s prime minister suggested had been plotted by the Islamic State.
Turkish government officials have called the bombing a terrorist attack and said that initial evidence suggested that two suicide bombers had caused it. The assault, in the town of Suruc, was the deadliest in Turkey in more than two years. If the Islamic State is confirmed to be behind the assault, it would be the organization’s first mass killing of civilians in Turkey and the worst spillover in deadly violence from Syria’s civil war.
“We believe today’s terrorist attack to be an act of retaliation against the Turkish government’s continued effort to fight terrorism,” said an official at the office of Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. It was carried out two weeks after Turkey intensified efforts to combat Islamic extremists by arresting hundreds across the country in a series of raids. On Saturday, Turkish security forces arrested nearly 500 people trying to cross from Turkey into northern Syria, where the Islamic State has firmly entrenched itself.
The attack took place two weeks after Turkey stepped up efforts to combat Islamic extremists through a series of raids that resulted in arrests across the country. On Saturday, Turkish security forces arrested nearly 500 people trying to cross into Syria through Turkey. When Turkish authorities blocked access to several Islamic news websites last week, Islamic State sympathizers in Turkey threatened to carry out an unspecified retaliation.
“We are calling on all for common sense in the face of this terrorist attack targeting our country’s unity,” the Interior Ministry said in a statement Monday. “For the first time, the war along Turkey’s borders moved within Turkey on Monday,” said Verda Ozer, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based research group, who was recently in Suruc.
The explosion was the deadliest terrorist attack along the Turkey-Syria border since car bombings in 2013 left dozens dead in the town of Reyhanli. Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, speaking about the Suruc bombing at a news conference in Ankara, the capital, said preliminary findings pointed to “a suicide attack carried out by Daesh,” the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State, also known as ISIS and ISIL.
An official at the mayor’s office in Suruc said that the explosion on Monday hit the Amara Cultural Center during a gathering of a youth group of Turks and Kurds meeting to discuss entering Kobani, across the border in Syria, as part of a summer expedition to rebuild the town. He said, however, that “we are not at a point to make a final judgment.”
“Investigations are underway, and it is too early to speculate over the cause, but there are fears that the attack is linked to Islamic State militants,” the official said. Turkish officials universally condemned the assault as an act of terrorism and some suggested it was retaliation for the government’s crackdown. The Interior Ministry said the assault was a “terrorist attack targeting our country’s unity.”
The explosion was the deadliest attack inside Turkey since car bombings in May 2013 left dozens dead in the town of Reyhanli, right by the Syrian border. Turkish officials blamed supporters of Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, for that assault.
Relations between Turkey and Syria, which share a border of more than 500 miles, have steadily worsened during the Syrian civil war, now more than four years old. Turkey houses one of the largest populations of Syrian refugees.
An official at the mayor’s office in Suruc said that the explosion on Monday hit the Amara Cultural Center during a gathering of a youth group of Turks and Kurds meeting to discuss entering Kobani, the town across the border in Syria that has been ravaged by fighting and is in urgent need of rebuilding.
Amateur video footage published by the Dogan News Agency shows a youth group chanting slogans and carrying a banner in the garden of the culture center before an explosion ripped through the crowd.Amateur video footage published by the Dogan News Agency shows a youth group chanting slogans and carrying a banner in the garden of the culture center before an explosion ripped through the crowd.
Witnesses said that two men had been seen carrying bags into the garden of the cultural center before blowing themselves up.Witnesses said that two men had been seen carrying bags into the garden of the cultural center before blowing themselves up.
“Bodies and body parts were scattered all over the place,” said Mustafa Ebdi, a Kurdish activist based in Suruc who arrived at the scene shortly after the blast. “Passers-by rushed to evacuate the wounded from the scene and then rushed them to the hospital.”“Bodies and body parts were scattered all over the place,” said Mustafa Ebdi, a Kurdish activist based in Suruc who arrived at the scene shortly after the blast. “Passers-by rushed to evacuate the wounded from the scene and then rushed them to the hospital.”
Television footage showed dozens of people lying on the grass as plumes of smoke rose up from the ground. Ambulances and private cars arrived to pick up the wounded.Television footage showed dozens of people lying on the grass as plumes of smoke rose up from the ground. Ambulances and private cars arrived to pick up the wounded.
Suruc is about eight miles from the Syrian town of Kobani, which Kurdish fighters have defended from repeated attacks by the Islamic State as a military coalition led by the United States has carried out airstrikes. The Islamic State suffered a blow when it lost control of Kobani in January.Suruc is about eight miles from the Syrian town of Kobani, which Kurdish fighters have defended from repeated attacks by the Islamic State as a military coalition led by the United States has carried out airstrikes. The Islamic State suffered a blow when it lost control of Kobani in January.
Another explosion was reported in Kobani on Monday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group based in Britain, said the blast had been caused by a car bomb targeting a checkpoint operated by Kurdish militia forces. It was not immediately clear whether the two explosions were linked. Another explosion was reported in Kobani on Monday, but the cause was not immediately clear.