Turkey says Islamic State was behind a auto bombing that killed two police and wounded more than 20 other people in a southern city near the border with Syria.
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Meanwhile, a third victim of an April 24 rocket attack on the Turkish border city of Kilis died May 2, a hospital source told state-run Anadolu Agency.
In the past year, Turkey has also witnessed suicide bombings linked to ISIS as well as attacks linked to Kurdish militants.
The authorities were blaming the Dicle bombing on the autonomy-seeking Kurdistan Workers’ Party, a group designated by Ankara and its allies as a terrorist organization.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Gov. Ali Yerlikaya of Gaziantep province said those injured in the blast at the entrance of the police station include at least nine policemen.
This is the third attack in several days on security forces.
In Sunday’s strikes, Turkish howitzers and multiple rocket launchers first hit Islamic State targets about 12 km (seven miles) south of the border, then four drones that took off from the Incirlik base in southern Turkey destroyed further targets, the military said. Eight people were wounded in two attacks launched from Daesh-controlled territory.
The air strikes were informed by intelligence gathered by the Turkish army, the private Dogan news agency reported.
In a separate attack in the province of Mardin to the east, three Turkish soldiers died in an ambush by Kurdish militants who have killed hundreds of members of the security forces in a renewed insurgency since past year. In Kilis alone, 19 people have been killed and many others have been wounded in such attacks in recent weeks. It was not possible to verify the agency’s claim.
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Kilis has regularly been hit by sometimes deadly rocket attacks by IS over the last months, prompting anxiety and anger on the part of local residents.
