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Car bomb in southern Turkey kills 2 police officers

The wider province of Kilis borders territory contested by IS militants, anti-government Syrian rebels and Kurdish factions.

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Security officers and firefighters work moments after an explosion outside the Police headquarters in Gaziantep, Turkey, Sunday, May 1, 2016.

Private broadcaster CNN Turk reported that the blast occurred in front of the barriers of the headquarters.

Several ambulances have been sent to the scene, the agency says.

The Turkish military killed 63 Islamic State soldiers in Syria Sunday after launching artillery and drone strikes from the Incirlik air base in southern Turkey, the Turkish military said in a statement.

The air strikes were informed by intelligence gathered by the Turkish army, Doğan news agency reported.

Police in Ankara, meanwhile, carried out anti-terror operations overnight and detained four suspected Islamic State militants allegedly planning to attack May Day demonstrators, the Anadolu Agency reported.

It said the Turkish military retaliated by firing at IS targets across the border in Syria, killing nine militants.

İsmail Ufak, 27, died in Kilis State Hospital, the source said on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to media. In Kilis province alone, a total of 20 people have been killed and 60 others have been wounded as a result.

Up to 50 people were detained for questioning in the city about the attack, he added.

Two police officers were killed and 22 people wounded in a suicide auto bomb attack in the southeastern Turkish city of Gaziantep, the governor and police sources said, in one of three attacks on the security forces on Sunday.

This week a female suicide bomber blew herself up in the city of Bursa, northwest Turkey, in attack that ended her life and wounded 13 people.

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Gaziantep is seen as vulnerable to attacks by IS jihadists who still control parts of Syria on the other side of the border, despite an offensive by Kurdish militias.

A U.S. Air Force Boeing C-17A Globemaster III large transport aircraft flies over a minaret after taking off from Incirlik air base in Adana Turkey in August. Four drones deployed from the air base were involved in the coalition-led attacks on ISIS