At least 9 wounded as suspected suicide bomber targets Indonesian church

JAKARTA  - A suspected suicide bomber blew themselves up outside a Catholic church in the Indonesian city of Makassar on Sunday, wounding nine people on the first day of the Easter Holy Week, police and a witness said.

The congregation had been inside the church on the island of Sulawesi at the time of the explosion and the lone attacker was the only fatality, police said.

Father Wilhemus Tulak, a priest at the church, told Indonesian media that the suspected bomber tried to enter the church grounds on a motorbike, but had been stopped by a security guard.

Security camera footage showed a blast that blew flame, smoke and debris into the middle of the road.

Police did not say who might be responsible for the apparent attack and there was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Police blamed the Islamic State-inspired Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) group for suicide attacks in 2018 on churches and a police post in the city of Surabaya that killed over 30 people.

Boy Rafli Amar, the head of the country's National Counterterrorism Agency, described Sunday's attack as an act of terrorism.

Makassar Mayor Danny Pomanto said the blast could have caused far more casualties if it had taken place at the church's main gate instead of a side entrance.

Makassar, Sulawesi's biggest city, reflects the religious makeup of Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority country with a substantial Christian minority and followers of other religions.

"Whatever the motive is, this act isn't justified by any religion because it harms not just one person but others, too," Yaqut Cholil Qoumas, Indonesia's religious affairs minister, said in a statement.

Gomar Gultom, head of the Indonesian Council of Churches, described the attack as a "cruel incident" as Christians were celebrating Palm Sunday, and urged people to remain calm and trust the authorities.

Indonesia's deadliest Islamist militant attack took place on the tourist island of Bali in 2002, when bombers killed 202 people, most of them foreign tourists.

In subsequent years, security forces in Indonesia scored some major successes in tackling militancy, but more recently there has been a resurgence of militant violence. 

Agence France-Presse

Police arrest 23-year old man over Ariana concert blast

British police said they arrested a 23-year old man in connection with a suicide bomb attack in Manchester which killed 22 people and injured dozens at a British concert by U.S. singer Ariana Grande.

"With regards to last night's incident at the Manchester Arena, we can confirm we have arrested a 23-year-old man in South Manchester," Greater Manchester Police said on Twitter on Tuesday.

A suicide bomber killed at least 22 people and wounded 59 at a packed concert hall in the English city of Manchester in what Prime Minister Theresa May called a sickening act targeting children and young people.

May said police believed they knew the identity of the bomber and police then said a 23-year-old man had been arrested in connection with the attack carried out late on Monday evening as people began leaving a concert given by Ariana Grande, a U.S. singer who attracts a large number of young and teenage fans.

"All acts of terrorism are cowardly...but this attack stands out for its appalling sickening cowardice, deliberately targeting innocent, defenseless children and young people who should have been enjoying one of the most memorable nights of their lives," May said outside her Downing Street office in London.

"The attempt to divide us met countless acts of kindness that brought people closer together."

The northern English city remained on high alert. A Reuters witnesses said they heard a "big bang" at Manchester's Arndale shopping mall and saw people running from the building. Police said they were dealing with an incident inside. The shopping centre reopened soon afterward, a Reuters witness said.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said more police had been ordered onto the streets of the British capital.

Monday's attack was the deadliest in Britain since four British Muslims killed 52 people in suicide bombings on London's transport system in 2005. But it will have reverberations far beyond British shores.

Attacks in cities including Paris, Nice, Brussels, St Petersburg, Berlin and London have shocked Europeans already anxious over security challenges from mass immigration and pockets of domestic Islamist radicalism. The Islamic State militant group has called for attacks as retaliation for Western involvement in the conflicts in Syria and Iraq.

Witnesses related the horror of the Manchester blast, which unleashed a stampede just as the concert ended at what is Europe's largest indoor arena, full to a capacity of 21,000.

"We ran and people were screaming around us and pushing on the stairs to go outside and people were falling down, girls were crying, and we saw these women being treated by paramedics having open wounds on their legs ... it was just chaos," said Sebastian Diaz, 19. "It was literally just a minute after it ended, the lights came on and the bomb went off."

U.S. President Donald Trump described the attack as the work of "evil losers". German Chancellor Angela Merkel said it "will only strengthen our resolve to...work with our British friends against those who plan and carry out such inhumane deeds."

A source with knowledge of the situation said the bomber's explosives were packed with metal and bolts. At least 19 of those wounded were in a critical condition, the source said.

A video posted on Twitter showed fans, many of them young, screaming and running from the venue. Dozens of parents frantically searched for their children, posting photos and pleading for information on social media.

"We were making our way out and when we were right by the door there was a massive explosion and everybody was screaming," concert-goer Catherine Macfarlane told Reuters.

"It was a huge explosion - you could feel it in your chest."

Singer Ariana Grande, 23, said on Twitter: "broken. from the bottom of my heart, i am so so sorry. i don't have words."

May, who faces an election in two-and-a-half weeks, said her thoughts were with the victims and their families. She and Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the opposition Labour Party, agreed to suspend campaigning ahead of the June 8 vote.

SUICIDE BOMBER?

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing, but U.S. officials drew parallels to the coordinated attacks in November 2015 by Islamist militants on the Bataclan concert hall and other sites in Paris that killed 130 people.

"It clearly bears the hallmark of Daesh (Islamic State)," said former French intelligence agent Claude Moniquet, now a Brussels-based security consultant, "because Ariana Grande is a young singer who attracts a very young audience, teenagers.

"So very clearly the aim was to do as much harm as possible, to shock British society as much as possible."

Islamic State supporters took to social media to celebrate the blast and some encouraged similar attacks elsewhere.

Britain is on its second-highest alert level of "severe", meaning an attack by militants is considered highly likely.

British counter-terrorism police have said they are making on average an arrest every day in connection with suspected terrorism.

In March, a British-born convert to Islam ploughed a car into pedestrians on London's Westminster Bridge, killing four people before stabbing to death a police officer who was on the grounds of parliament. The man was shot dead at the scene.

In 2015, Pakistani student Abid Naseer was convicted in a U.S. court of conspiring with al Qaeda to blow up the Arndale shopping center in the center of Manchester in April 2009.

(Reporting by Costas Pitas, Editing by Paul Sandle)

source: news.abs-cbn.com

At least 22 killed suicide attack at Ariana Grande concert in Britain

MANCHESTER - At least 22 people, including some children, were killed and 59 wounded when a suicide bomber struck as thousands of fans streamed out of a concert by US singer Ariana Grande in the English city of Manchester on Monday.

Prime Minister Theresa May said the incident was being treated as a terrorist attack, making it the deadliest militant assault in Britain since four British Muslims killed 52 people in suicide bombings on London's transport system in July 2005.

Police said the attacker died after detonating explosives shortly after 10:33 pm (5:35 a.m. in Manila) at Manchester Arena, which has the capacity to hold 21,000 people. Children were among the dead, police said.

"We believe, at this stage, the attack last night was conducted by one man," Manchester Chief Constable Ian Hopkins told reporters. "The priority is to establish whether he was acting alone or as part of a network.

"The attacker... died at the arena. We believe the attacker was carrying an improvised explosive device which he detonated causing this atrocity."

A witness who attended the concert said she felt a huge blast as she was leaving the arena, followed by screaming and a rush by thousands of people trying to escape the building.

A video posted on Twitter showed fans, many of them young, screaming and running from the venue. Dozens of parents frantically searched for their children, posting photos and pleading for information on social media.

"We were making our way out and when we were right by the door there was a massive explosion and everybody was screaming," concert-goer Catherine Macfarlane told Reuters.

"It was a huge explosion - you could feel it in your chest. It was chaotic. Everybody was running and screaming and just trying to get out."

Ariana Grande, 23, later said on Twitter: "broken. from the bottom of my heart, i am so so sorry. i don't have words."

May, who faces an election in two-and-a-half weeks, said her thoughts were with the victims and their families. She and Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the opposition Labour Party, agreed to suspend campaigning ahead of the June 8 election.

"We are working to establish the full details of what is being treated by the police as an appalling terrorist attack," May said in a statement. "All our thoughts are with the victims and the families of those who have been affected."

May is due to hold a crisis response meeting.

Chinese President Xi Jinping sent his condolences over the blast to Britain's Queen Elizabeth, Chinese state media reported.

The Philippines' Department of Foreign Affairs meanwhile said it was seeking confirmation on the condition of Filipinos in England.

 SUICIDE BOMBER?

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but US officials drew parallels to the coordinated attacks in November 2015 by Islamist militants on the Bataclan concert hall and other sites in Paris, which claimed about 130 lives.

Islamic State supporters took to social media to celebrate the blast and some encouraged similar attacks elsewhere.

Britain is on its second-highest alert level of "severe", meaning an attack by militants is considered highly likely.

British counter-terrorism police have said they are making on average an arrest every day in connection with suspected terrorism.

In March, a British-born convert to Islam ploughed a car into pedestrians on London's Westminster Bridge, killing four people before stabbing to death a police officer who was on the grounds of parliament. The man was shot dead at the scene.

In 2015, Pakistani student Abid Naseer was convicted in a US court of conspiring with al Qaeda to blow up the Arndale shopping centre in the centre of Manchester in April 2009.

PARENTS' ANGUISH

Manchester Arena, the largest indoor arena in Europe, opened in 1995 and is a popular concert and sporting venue.

Desperate parents and friends used social media to search for loved ones who attended Monday's concert while the wounded were being treated at six hospitals across Manchester.

"Everyone pls share this, my little sister Emma was at the Ari concert tonight in #Manchester and she isn't answering her phone, pls help me," said one message posted alongside a picture of a blonde girl with flowers in her hair.

Paula Robinson, 48, from West Dalton about 40 miles east of Manchester, said she was at the train station next to the arena with her husband when she felt the explosion and saw dozens of teenage girls screaming and running away from arena.

"We ran out," Robinson told Reuters. "It was literally seconds after the explosion. I got the teens to run with me."

Robinson took dozens of teenage girls to the nearby Holiday Inn Express hotel and tweeted out her phone number to worried parents, telling them to meet her there. She said her phone had not stopped ringing since her tweet.

"Parents were frantic running about trying to get to their children," she said. "There were lots of lots children at Holiday Inn."

(Additional Reporting by Alistair Smout, Kate Holton and David Milliken in LONDON, Mark Hosenball in LOS ANGELES, John Walcott in WASHINGTON, D.C., Leela de Kretser in NEW YORK, Mostafa Hashem in CAIRO, and Ben Blanchard in BEIJING; Writing by Guy Faulconbridge and Nick Tattersall; Editing by Paul Tait and John Stonestreet)

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Car bomb attack kills 18 at Turkish military checkpoint

ANKARA, Turkey - Eighteen people were killed Sunday when a van packed with five tons of explosives blew up in Turkey's restive southeast, the prime minister said, in an attack blamed on Kurdish militants.

The bombing, which killed 10 soldiers and eight civilians, was one of the deadliest attacks on Turkish security forces since the attempted coup of July 15 when a rogue military faction tried to oust President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

"The attack was perpetrated by a suicide bomber who detonated a van (packed) with five tonnes of explosives," Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told a news conference in Istanbul.

The attack targeted a security post in Hakkari province as security forces were searching vehicles in Semdinli district, the official news agency Anadolu said.

In a statement, the Hakkari governor said a vehicle refused to stop as it approached a checkpoint, resulting in soldiers responding with gunfire.

Militants then also started shooting, the governor's office said, quoted by Dogan news agency.

Another 27 people were injured in the blast caused by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Erdogan said in a written statement. Anadolu reported at least 16 of those were civilians.

Soon after the attack, which Anadolu said left a seven-meter (22-foot) deep hole in the road, the military confirmed it had begun a large-scale air operation which the governor's office said was launched to "neutralize" PKK militants.

The governor said commando units on the ground were continuing to search for PKK fighters.

'HEINOUS TERRORIST ATTACK'

Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus described Sunday's incident as an "atrocious" and "heinous terrorist attack", vowing on Twitter that Turkey would never surrender to militant groups.

The White House said it condemned "in the strongest terms the deadly terrorist attack today against a military checkpoint in southeastern Turkey that left many dead, including civilians, and scores more wounded."

"We remain steadfast in our support for our NATO ally, Turkey, and reaffirm our commitment to continue working together to defeat all forms of terrorism," Ned Price, the White House National Security Council spokesman said.

Over the past two months, the military says it has killed a total of 387 PKK militants in Hakkari province, CNN-Turk reported.

The PKK has waged a 32-year insurgency against the Turkish state, which has left nearly 40,000 dead since 1984. The group is proscribed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

Since the collapse of a two-and-a-half-year ceasefire in July 2015, more than 600 security forces and 7,000 PKK militants have been killed, according to Anadolu.

Over the past 15 months, attacks on the Turkish security forces have continued on an almost daily basis as the government has pressed military operations against the PKK to rid urban areas of fighters.

Hakkari is a flashpoint in the renewed conflict. On Saturday the Turkish armed forces said it "neutralized" eight PKK militants in Cukurcu district after clashes with the group, Anadolu reported.

FIGHT WILL GO ON

Yildirim vowed that Turkey would continue with determination its "fight against the separatist terrorist organisation (PKK)... and all kinds of terrorist organisations" including jihadists from the Islamic State (IS) group.

Meanwhile, Erdogan promised: "The state with all its institutions, hand in hand with the people, is determined to stop the actions of the separatist terrorist organisation (PKK)."

The bombing comes a day after two suspects believed to have been preparing a car bomb attack blew themselves up on the outskirts of Ankara when police ordered them to surrender.

Turkish officials said they believed the pair were linked to the PKK.

The attack also took place a day before the year anniversary of the bloodiest attack in Turkey's modern history when 103 people were killed and more than 500 wounded in twin suicide bombings targeting a pro-Kurdish peace rally in the capital, Ankara.

That attack was blamed on IS.

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Suicide bomber kills 1, wounds 3 in Yemeni port city

ADEN, - A suicide bomber blew himself up near a cinema in the Yemeni port city of Aden on Saturday, killing one person and wounding three others, residents and a local official said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing in Aden's Crater district, which was carried out by an attacker wearing an explosive belt.

Islamist militants, including the Islamic State group, have exploited an 18-month civil war between a Saudi-backed exiled Yemeni government and the Houthi movement to carve out influence in southern Yemen, where they have been recruiting new followers and launching attacks on military targets and senior officials.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the assassination of two security officers killed in Aden earlier this week, the group said on Friday via its Telegram account.

In August, a suicide bomber killed at least 54 people when he drove a car bomb into a militia compound in Aden in one of the deadliest attacks claimed by Islamic State in the southern port city.

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Several dead in Somalia hotel attack

At least 15 people died when jihadists exploded a suicide car bomb outside a popular hotel close to the presidential palace in Somalia's capital Mogadishu, police said Wednesday, updating an earlier toll.

"The number of the people who died in the blast reached 15 and 45 others were wounded, most of them lightly," said Mogadishu police chief Bishar Abshir Gedi.

He said civilians and security forces were among the dead in Tuesday's attack.

Several journalists who were at the hotel at the time of the attack were injured.

A vehicle rammed through a checkpoint on Tuesday and was fired on by security forces before it exploded outside the SYL hotel.

An earlier toll stood at five killed and 28 injured.

The hotel is situated close to the main entrance to the Villa Somalia government complex that includes the presidential palace, ministry buildings and residences.

A witness described seeing a large blast and a thick plume of smoke that rose high into the air.

"I saw a car speeding towards the area and huge smoke and fire went up in the sky," said Elmi Ahmed.

The explosion left a scene of widespread damage with a crater in the road, buildings damaged, nearby walls collapsed and debris scattered across the usually busy carriageway.

The Al-Qaeda aligned Shabaab jihadist group said it was responsible for the attack.

The fortified hotel, popular with government officials, business people and visiting diplomats and delegations, was previously attacked in both February this year and January last year.

Last week gunmen detonated a bomb outside a beachside restaurant before storming inside and killing at least seven people.

The jihadists have also staged repeated attacks in neighbouring Kenya and a recent security analysis warned the group was expanding its horizons with cells active in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda as well as Somalia.

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Suicide bomber attacks Indonesian police station, wounding one

JAKARTA - A suicide bomber on a motorcycle attacked a police station in the small Indonesian city of Solo on Tuesday, killing himself and wounding a police officer, a police spokesman said.

Shortly after the attack, President Joko Widodo, who is from Solo and a former mayor of the town, ordered police to arrest others that may have been connected to the suicide bomber.

"I have asked the police chief to chase down the network and uncover who is the suicide bomber," the president told reporters. "We hope for the people to remain calm in this last fasting day. No need to be scared."

Police said the attacker detonated the bomb he was wearing shortly after driving into the grounds of the police station in Solo, known as a hotbed for religious fundamentalism. A police officer who tried to stop him from entering sustained minor injuries.

The identity of the bomber was not immediately clear, but intelligence chief Sutiyoso told MetroTV he suspected the attacker was a supporter of Islamic State.

Indonesian authorities have been on heightened alert since the Islamic State militant group claimed an attack in the capital, Jakarta, in January that killed four people. The four attackers also died.

Southeast Asia's largest economy is home to the world's largest Muslim population, the vast majority of whom practise a moderate form of Islam.

Indonesia saw a spate of attacks in the 2000s, the deadliest of which was a nightclub bombing on the holiday island of Bali that killed 202 people, most of them tourists.

Police have been largely successful in destroying domestic militant cells since then, but they now worry that the influence of Islamic State could pitch the country back into violence.

Southeast Asian militants who claim to be fighting for Islamic State in the Middle East have said they have chosen one of the most wanted men in the Philippines to head a regional faction of the ultra-radical group that includes Indonesians and Malaysians, security officials said last month.

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Blasts, gunfight in Indonesian capital; at least 6 dead

JAKARTA - Militants launched a gun and bomb assault killing at least six people in the center of the Indonesian capital on Thursday, police said, in an attack that followed a threat by Islamic State fighters to put the country in their ''spotlight''.

Media said six bombs went off and a Reuters witness saw three dead people and a gunfight going on. One blast was in a Starbucks cafe and security forces were later seen entering the building.

Police said they suspected a suicide bomber was responsible for at least one of the blasts and up to 14 militant gunmen were involved in the attack, Metro TV reported.

"The Starbucks cafe windows are blown out. I see three dead people on the road. There has been a lull in the shooting but someone is on the roof of the building and police are aiming their guns at him," said a Reuters photographer.

Indonesia has been on edge in recent weeks over the threat posed by Islamist militants and counter-terrorism police have launched a crackdown on people with suspected links to Islamic State.

"We have previously received a threat from Islamic State that Indonesia will be the spotlight," police spokesman Anton Charliyan told reporters. But he said police did not know who was responsible.

He said three policemen and three civilians had been killed.

"I saw a police officer shot right in front of me," one witness told TV One.

One explosion went off in front of a shopping center called the Sarinah mall, on a main avenue. Media said a police post outside the mall was blown up.

Police snipers were deployed among hundreds of other security officers.

A U.N. building near the scene was in lock-down with no one allowed in or out, a witness said. Some other high-rise buildings in the area were evacuated.

Indonesia's central bank is located in the same area, and a spokesman for the bank said a policy meeting was going ahead and a decision on interest rates would be announced as planned later in the day.

An explosion was heard in the western suburb of Palmerah, according to a domestic media tweet, but police said they could not confirm a blast there.

Indonesia has the world's largest Muslim population, the vast majority of whom practice a moderate form of the religion.

The country saw a spate of militant attacks in the 2000s, the deadliest of which was a nightclub bombing on the holiday island of Bali that killed 202 people, most of them tourists.

Police have been largely successful in destroying domestic militant cells since then, but officials have more recently been worrying about a resurgence inspired by groups such as Islamic State and Indonesians who return after fighting with the group.

The last major militant attacks in Jakarta were in July 2009, with bombs at the JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels.

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More than 30 dead as carnage returns to NE Nigeria

KADUNA - More than 30 people were killed Tuesday when a bomb blast ripped through packed crowds in Yola, northeast Nigeria, just days after President Muhammadu Buhari visited declaring that Boko Haram were close to defeat.

The explosion happened at about 8:20 pm (1920 GMT) in the Jambutu area of the Adamawa state capital, although it was not immediately clear whether it was caused by a suicide bomber or an improvised explosive device.

"So far, we've recorded about 32 dead and about 80 injured," said Sa'ad Bello, the Yola coordinator for the National Emergency Management Agency.

The Red Cross and state police gave a slightly lower toll of 31 dead and 72 injured.

The blast bore all the hallmarks of Boko Haram, which has previously attacked Yola with suicide bombers and improvised explosive devices in recent months.

Buhari this month was in Yola to decorate soldiers for bravery in the counter-insurgency as well as visit a camp for people displaced by six years of violence that has left at least 17,000 people dead.

He told troops he believed Boko Haram "are very close to defeat" and urged soldiers "to remain vigilant, alert and focused to prevent Boko Haram from sneaking into our communities to attack soft targets".

Red Cross official Aliyu Maikano and residents said the area targeted was a lorry park which also houses a livestock market, an open-air restaurant and a mosque.

The area was immediately cordoned off but poor power supply in Yola meant the rescue effort was conducted in near darkness.

"Victims could be lying all over the place," Maikano said.

'DEADLIEST GROUP'

Tuesday's blast was the first in Nigeria this month, indicating the army's strategy to cut off the Islamists' supply lines and target their camps was paying off.

Buhari has set his military commanders a deadline of the end of next month to crush the rebels, who have increasingly taken to attacking border areas of neighbouring Chad, Niger and Cameroon.

But the Yola explosion also shows the difficulty in completely neutralising the threat, particularly in crowded urban areas.

On Monday, the army said it had foiled an attack using high-powered assault weapons and bombs in the capital of Borno state, Maiduguri, as well as having uncovered a bomb-making factory.

Yola had been seen as a relative haven from the bloodshed across the northeast and last year housed hundreds of thousands who fled their homes as the militants advanced into Adawawa state.

The military declared the state "cleared" earlier this year.

But in October, 27 people were killed and 96 injured in a blast at a mosque in Jambutu, while in September, seven people died and 20 were injured by a bomb left at the displaced persons camp visited by Buhari last week.

Two suicide bombers blew themselves up at one of Yola's main markets in June, killing 31.

There have also been multiple raids in the north of the state, near the group's Sambisa Forest stronghold across the border in Borno.

The blast came as Boko Haram was named in the latest Global Terrorism Index as "the most deadly terrorist group in the world", having killed 6,644 people last year.

The index, published by the Institute for Economics and Peace, said the Islamic State group, to which Boko Haram has pledged allegiance, killed 6,073.

It highlighted "the major intensification of the terrorist threat in Nigeria" and said it had "witnessed the largest increase in terrorist deaths ever recorded by any country".

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Suicide bomber kills 31 in Turkey attack blamed on IS

ANKARA, Turkey - A suspected Islamic State suicide bomber killed at least 31 people Monday in an attack on a Turkish cultural centre where activists had gathered to prepare for an aid mission in the nearby Syrian town of Kobane.

The blast ripped through the centre in Suruc -- a town just across the border from Kobane, which was itself later hit by a suicide car bombing -- blowing out the windows and starting a fire, witnesses said.

Most of the dead were university students who were planning to enter Syria to help rebuild Kobane, which was occupied by Islamic State for months before being recaptured by Kurdish forces in January.

In addition to those killed, around 100 other people were wounded by the blast.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on a visit to northern Cyprus, condemned the attack as an "act of terror".

"On behalf of my people, I curse and condemn the perpetrators of this brutality," he said. "Terror must be condemned no matter where it comes from."

Television footage showed several people lying on the ground covered in blood and ambulances rushing to the scene.

AFP pictures showed bodies covered in blankets lain out in the centre's garden.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu pointed the finger of blame for what was "clearly a terrorist attack" at Islamic State.

"Preliminary findings point to it being a suicide attack carried out by Daesh," Davutoglu said in Ankara, using an Arabic acronym for IS. "But we are not at a point to make a final judgement."

If confirmed, it would be the first such attack by IS fighters against Turkey, a regional military power and NATO member.

Local resident Mehmet Celik told AFP the town was "in chaos".

Alp Altinors from the pro-Kurdish HDP party said the group of around 300 activists who gathered in Suruc from across the country were from the Federation of Socialist Youth Associations and that most were students.

"They were planning to build parks in Kobane, hand out toys for children and paint school walls," he told AFP.

Social media images showed the group relaxing over breakfast in the garden a few hours before the noon blast.

A video circulated by the private Dogan news agency showed a spokesman for the activists saying into a microphone: "We, the youth, are here. We have defended Kobane together and now we are setting out to rebuild it together."

Davutoglu said the blast aimed to undermine Turkish democracy.

"This attack targets us all," he said, dispatching three ministers to the southeastern region.

"Daesh threatens not only Syrian people but also Turkey," he added.

'Targeting Turkey's democracy'

White House spokesman Josh Earnest condemned the "heinous" attack, as did Russian President Vladimir Putin, who labelled it a "barbaric act" and called for greater international cooperation in fighting terrorism.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius also joined in the condemnation.

The attack in Suruc was followed closely afterwards by a suicide car bombing at a checkpoint in Kobane, which killed two members of the Kurdish security forces, according to Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Kobane has been a symbol of resistance against the jihadists since IS fighters were driven out by Syrian Kurdish forces backed by US-led airstrikes.

Turkey's Kurds were frustrated at the time at Ankara's refusal to intervene to rout the insurgents, who have seized large parts of Syria and Iraq over the past year.

Ankara's critics accused it of tolerating or even aiding IS, as a useful ally against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whom Erdogan wants ousted -- allegations vehemently rejected by Ankara.

In recent weeks, Turkish authorities have stepped up their actions against the jihadists, arresting dozens of suspected IS militants and sympathisers.

"It's now obvious that the Turkish government has upgraded the threat posed by ISIS to among the top ones it is facing," a Western diplomat told AFP last week.

Turkey has also boosted its border defences, stationing tanks and anti-aircraft missiles along its frontier with Syria as well as bolstering troop numbers.

The build-up has fed speculation that the government is planning an intervention to push the jihadists back from the border and halt the advance of Kurdish forces who have made gains in the area.

The government has however ruled out any immediate action in Syria.

Reluctant coalition member

Ankara categorises IS as a terrorist group but has been a reluctant member of the US-led anti-IS coalition, refusing to give its NATO ally the use of Incirlik air base in the south for raids on the jihadists.

The Islamists made a surprise raid on Kobane last month, five months after being driven out of the town.

The nearby town of Suruc, once a centre of silk-making, is home to one of the biggest refugee camps in Turkey housing Syrians who have fled their country's bloody four-year conflict.

The camp shelters about 35,000 refugees out of a total of more than 1.8 million refugees taken in by Turkey since 2011.

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