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The explosion that killed 30 people and wounded some 100 others in the town of Suruc in southeastern Turkey on Monday indicates a spillover of conflict from southern neighbor Syria, analysts believe.
"Suruc attack aims to export Syrian conflict to Turkey or pull Turkey into a cross border clashes. Or perhaps the both," Deniz Ulke Aribogan, professor of international relations, said.
The death toll may increase as some of the wounded are in critical conditions.
The attack targeted the assembly of mostly Kurdish activists in Suruc, a town in Sanliurfa province in the southeast Turkey.
No claim was made by any group so far although local media, based on eyewitness accounts, reported a suspected suicide attack by Islamic State (IS) militant may be behind the attack.
Turkish government officials have not confirmed any of the reporting on who might have staged the deadly attack, yet Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said initial investigation findings point to the IS group as suspects in Monday's explosion.
He also noted that it is highly likely that a suicide bomb was involved in the blast.
One of the bodies was badly marred, and officials are trying to determine the suspected suicide bomber's ID, the prime minister told reporters following a security meeting held after the attack.
Davutoglu dismissed accusations claiming Turkey supported IS militants in Syria, stressing that Turkey was the first country to designate IS as a terrorist organization.
IS poses as much of a threat to Turkey as it does to Syria, Davutoglu said.
Pervin Buldan, a deputy from the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) said authorities are looking into possibility whether the attack was a suicide bombing.
Suruc district governor Abdullah Ciftci stated that there is high possibility that the attack is a suicide bomb attack.
Sedat Laciner, professor of international relations at COMU university, also believed the motive behind the attack is to drag Turkey into Syrian quagmire.
"In my opinion, the objective is to pull Turkey into a war and export clashes in Syria to Turkish side," he commented.
The attack happened around noontime in front of the cultural center in Suruc when some 300 activists from a socialist group gathered to make a press statement on the reconstruction of the Syrian border town of Kobane.
Suruc is located right across Kobane, a Kurdish town in Syria that was the scene of fierce clashes between IS militants and Kurdish fighters last year before the IS was pushed out.
The Turkish government called on public to act in vigil and with commonsense and asked them to unite against the terrorism.
The Interior Ministry dubbed the incident as aiming to damage the nation's peace and unity.
Two ministers and one deputy prime minister were dispatched to the scene to investigate the attack.
Some analysts said the incident exposed the failure in preventive intelligence in the law enforcement and intelligence branches.
Ercan Tastekin, the head of the Research Center for Security Strategies (GUSAM), said "The fact that such a large scale incident was not prevented and informed in advance signals the failure in the intelligence".
He underlined that Suruc is highly critical and strategic place near Syrian border.
"It was a disastrous to not elevate security measures to highest level before the incident there," he lamented.
Turkey's opposition parties have all condemned the attack but also lambasted on the government for not preparing such a contingency when Syrian crisis has been unfolding since 2011.
Grand Unity Party (BBP) leader Mustafa Destici complained that he has been asking the government to beef up security measures in border provinces for some time.
"If no lesson was drawn fro this latest attack, similar attacks will likely happen in the future, I'm afraid," he commented.
Felicity Party (SP) chairman Mustafa Kamalak also described the attack as 'failure in intelligence', saying that wrong foreign policy positions towards regional countries have turned Turkey into a target by terror groups. Enditem
