At least 28 people have been killed and about 100 injured in a suspected terrorist attack in the south-eastern Turkish city of Suruc, near the Syrian border, Turkey's interior ministry said.
The ministry called for calm, describing the blast as a “terror attack that targeted our country’s unity and integrity”. Suruc is located just across the border from the Syrian city of Kobani, the scene of fierce battles between Kurdish groups and Islamic State.
Kobani was IS'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.
The Turkish DHA news agency said the blast in Suruc occurred at a cultural centre while a political group was holding a news conference on Kobani's reconstruction. News reports said 300 people from the Federation of Socialist Youths were staying at the centre and were preparing to travel to Kobani to help with the rebuilding.
A second bomb went off afterwards south of Kobani near a Kurdish militia checkpoint on the road to Syria's largest city of Aleppo, according to a Kurdish official in Kobani, Idriss Naasan. It caused minor damage and no casualties, he said.
Kobani was also the scene of surprise IS attacks last month that killed more than 200 people.
Turkey Prime Ministry Office said three ministers -- Deputy PM, Interior Minister and Labor Minister -- were set to visit Suruc later in the day to investigate the scene.
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Agencies
