Suspected Daesh suicide explosion during Turkish police raid

A suspected Islamic State insurgent carried out a suicide bombing during a Turkish police operation at a house near the Syrian border on Thursday, local media reported.

"A terrorist found in a Daesh (Islamic State) hideout activated his bomb belt," when police arrived, Dogan reported.

Several ambulances were rushed to the scene but the state-run Anatolia news agency said no police officers were hurt in the incident.

The suicide bomber was killed and another person was arrested in the house in Gaziantep, southern Turkey, close to border with Syria.

Turkey is on maximum alert after being hit this year by a series of deadly attacks attributed to Islamic State or Kurdish separatists. 

Security was particularly high on Thursday, a national holiday commemorating the 1919 start of Turkey's war of independence.

A car bomb attack on May 1 in Gaziantep killed three police officers.

No one claimed responsibility for that attack which was attributed to an IS-linked terror group.

Turkey, a member of NATO and the US-led anti-jihadist coalition, appears to have increased its operations against Islamic State in northern Syria, where the jihadists control areas near the joint border.

Source: AFP