Car bomb kills 29 near Syria-Turkey border: monitor

BEIRUT/KİLİS

A car bomb killed at least 29 civilians and wounded dozens more on the Syrian side of the Bab al-Salama border crossing with Turkey on Thursday, a monitoring group said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the explosion hit an area being used as a parking lot, adding that women and children were among the dead.

Those wounded in the blast have been taken to the nearby Kilis State Hospital.

Security measures have reportedly been escalated in the region.

Gruesome photographs posted online by activists showed shocked men standing over charred, blackened bodies, some missing limbs.
      
The area around the crossing has been targeted by car bombs before.
     
In February, a blast on the Syrian side killed six people and wounded 45.
      
The Syrian side of the crossing is under the control of Islamist rebels who have been battling jihadists from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant since early January.
      
Other border crossings between Turkey and Syria have also been targeted, including the Bab al-Hawa post in Idlib province in the northwest, where two suicide bombers killed 16 people in January.