Two explosive-laden cars blew up in a small Turkish town near the border with Syria today, killing 18 people in one of the deadliest recent attacks in the volatile area.
The bombings in the town of Reyhanli, just a few kilometres from the main border crossing into Syria, come amid increasingly bellicose criticism by Ankara of the regime in Damascus.
Interior Minister Muammer Guler said the explosions were caused by car bombs that blew up near the town hall and the post office in Reyhanli, according to the Anatolia news agency.
"Unfortunately, we are now at 18 dead and the number of wounded is also rising," he was quoted as saying by Anatolia.
"We are going to launch an inquiry into all this, so that everything becomes clear," Guler said.
Several ambulances rushed to the scene to tend to the victims, CNN-Turk television said, adding that the town hall had suffered major damage.
Reyhanli, a town of about 60,000 people, lies in southern Turkey near the Cilvegozu crossing opposite Syria's Bab al-Hawa border post.
The border area has witnessed a number of attacks as the conflict in Syria spills over into Turkey, a one-time ally of President Bashar al-Assad.
In February, a car bomb attack at Cilvegozu which Turkey blamed on Syrian intelligence agents killed 17 people and wounded another 30.
Today's attacks come just two days after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he believed Syria has used chemical weapons, crossing a "red line" set by US President Barack Obama.
