2 injured in blast in Turkish town near border with Syria; Turks call it a terror attack

ANKARA, Turkey – A bomb exploded Friday near a police checkpoint at a Turkish town near the border with Syria, injuring two people, officials said.

Turkish Labor Minister Faruk Celik said the bomb inside a garbage container was left beside a parked car 15 metres (yards) from a police checkpoint in Suruc. A policeman and a passer-by sustained slight injuries, he said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

Suruc lies opposite the Syrian town of Kobani, where last month Kurdish forces, aided by the U.S.-led coalition’s airstrikes, pushed out Islamic State fighters after months of fierce fighting.

“The nature of the bomb indicates that it was a terror attack,” Celik told state-run TRT television, adding that an investigation had been launched but it was too soon to say who was responsible for the attack.

The private Dogan news agency’s video of the scene showed a police cordon around a destroyed white car.