Car bomb in southern Turkey kills policeman, 13 wounded

 

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A car bomb struck the entrance of a Turkish police station Sunday in the southern city of Gaziantep, killing a policeman and injuring 13 other people, an official said.

Gov. Ali Yerlikaya of Gaziantep province said those injured in the blast include at least nine policemen. The city is near the border with Syria.

Unconfirmed reports say gunfire was heard after the explosion. Several ambulances have been sent to the scene, the private NTV television reported.

Turkey, which is facing both growing blowback from the conflict in Syria and renewed conflict with Kurdish militants, has seen a rise of such attacks recently. In the past year, more than 200 people across the country have been killed in six major bombings. 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.

In a separate incident Sunday, four people were wounded after two rockets hit a car park and house garden in Kilis, another town near the Syrian border, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported. It said the Turkish military retaliated by firing at IS targets across the border in Syria, killing nine militants. It was not possible to verify the agency's claim.