Suspected Suicide Bomber Was Turkish Citizen Who Went To Syria: Official

SurucBombingVictims — Armed men escort the coffins of victims who were killed in Monday's bomb attack in Suruc, as they arrive at Gazi Cemevi, an Alevi place of worship, in Istanbul, Turkey on July 21, 2015. Reuters

ANKARA (Reuters) - A suspected suicide bomber who killed 32 people in southeastern Turkey this week was a Turkish citizen who had illegally traveled to Syria last year, a senior government official told Reuters on Wednesday.

The bomb attack, blamed on Islamic State, in Suruc, near the Syrian border, targeted a group of mostly university-age activists who had planned to visit the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani, beseiged for months by Islamic State until January.

The suspect, a 20-year-old ethnic Kurd from the southeastern town of Adiyaman, also had links with another alleged bomber who attacked a pro-Kurdish political rally days before a June 7 general election, the official said on condition of anonymity.