Turkey rejects claims IS raided Kobane from its soil

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AFP Ankara
Last Updated : Jun 25 2015 | 8:13 PM IST
Turkey rejected as "black propaganda" claims that Islamic State (IS) militants crossed from Turkey today to carry out a deadly bombing on the Syrian town of Kobane.
IS extremists killed 12 civilians in a suicide car bomb near the Turkish border crossing adjacent to Kobane, according to a monitoring group.
A few hours later, two more car bombs detonated near the border, but there were no immediate details on casualties.
Turkish officials said four victims had died in Turkish hospitals while 96 injured received treatment on the Turkish side of the border.
Claims circulating on the Internet suggested several cars loaded with IS militants passed through the Mursitpinar border crossing in Turkey to make their way into Kobane.
"The claim that Daesh militants passed through the Turkish border is entirely a lie and part of a black propoganda," Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said in a message on Twitter, using a pejorative Arabic term for IS.
The governor's office in the border region of Sanliurfa said its information "proves" IS members infiltrated Kobane from Jarablus in Syria.
It added: "Turkish armed forces are monitoring our borders 24 hours as part of security measures."
The Turkish government said video footage taken from Turkish border security units and broadcast by the state-run Anatolia news agency showed a bomb-laden car did not pass through the Turkish border crossing.
Kurdish activists however accused Turkey on social media of assisting the IS jihadists, with the hashtag #TerroristTurkey becoming a trending topic on Twitter.
Arin Shekhmos, a Syrian Kurdish activist, told AFP in Beirut earlier that IS had entered Syria from Turkey through the Mursitpinar border crossing.
He claimed the IS forces were wearing Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) uniforms as a disguise when they entered.
The accusations come amid growing tensions between Syrian Kurds and Turkey.
Turkey says Syrian Kurdish forces who recently made gains in Syria against IS are linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which for decades has waged a deadly insurgency inside Turkey.
Western states have repeatedly accused Turkey of not doing enough to halt the flow of jihadists in both directions across its 911-kilometre border with Syria.
Turkey fiercely rejects the accusations, saying it is making every effort to secure a long border and in turn has accused the West of not playing its part to shoulder the burden of hosting refugees from Syria.
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First Published: Jun 25 2015 | 8:13 PM IST

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