ISTANBUL: A suspected Islamic State suicide bomber blew himself up during an anti-terror raid in the Turkish city of Gaziantep on Sunday, killing three police officers, officials said.
A few hours later, a second suicide bomber — identified as the chief of IS group “bomb cells” in the city near the Syrian border — detonated his explosives, killing himself but without causing any further fatalities.
The blasts took place shortly after Turkish-backed rebels captured the northern Syrian town of Dabiq from the IS group, dealing a major symbolic blow to the militants.
In the first attack in Gaziantep, the bomber set off his explosives to avoid being captured by Turkish police, local governor Ali Yerlikaya said in televised comments.
Turkish media had initially spoken of more than one attacker but the governor and the local prosecutor’s office said the body of just one bomber was found at the scene.
The governor said five police and four Syrians were also injured.
Acting on a tip-off, special police used armoured vehicles to block the road where the suspected jihadists were holed up in a house, the state-run news agency Anadolu reported.
Witnesses told private NTV television they heard sound of gunfire and clashes in the area, which is mostly populated by university students.
