UN condemns Turkey suicide attack

The UN Security Council has condemned "in the strongest terms" the suicide attack in Turkey that killed 32 people and has been blamed on the Islamic State group.

In a unanimous statement, the 15-member council "underlined the need to bring perpetrators of these reprehensible acts of terrorism to justice."

It also stressed the need to combat "by all means" the threat to international peace and security caused by acts of terrorism, calling them "criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation, wherever, whenever and by whomsoever committed."

A suicide bomber, identified as a 20-year-old Turk, blew himself up on Monday in the small town of Suruc across the border with Syria from the embattled town of Kobane, a battleground between Kurds and IS fighters.

The explosion killed 32 people and wounded about a hundred others, most of them young Kurds who had gone to Suruc to prepare for an humanitarian aid mission in Kobane.

Turkish media said the attacker was a university student who had become involved with IS two months earlier.

It was the deadliest attack in Turkey since 2013, and if IS involvement is confirmed, would be the group's first suicide attack on Turkish soil.

The attack prompted a reprisal by a Kurdish group, killing two Turkish police.