At least eight civilians and police officers were wounded by an Islamic State (Isis) suicide bomber, in an attack on Gaziantep city. Two of them are reported to be in a serious condition, according to Dogan news agency.

A police tip-off led to a raid on a suspected IS (Daesh) militant cell in the Turkish city's Sahinbey district near the Syrian border, said Turkish state-run Andalou Agency. There were reports that the IS militants were plotting an attack on Sunday, 16 October, at an Alawaite cultural association.

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"Unfortunately, three of our police officers were martyred and eight people, including four Syrians, were wounded," Gaziantep Governor Ali Yerlikaya told Anadolu. The news agency said police officers were among the wounded and one person was in critical condition.

Activist Bereket Kar, told Al-Monitor: "Alawites, along with other ethnic and religious minorities such as Arab Christians, Armenians, Druze, Ismailis and also a majority of Sunni Syrian Arabs, do not wish to see an Islamic rule in Syria's future."

The explosion at the IS cell house took place after one of the suicide bombers detonated the explosive device rather than be captured alive. Of the wounded, four of were Syrian, Yerlikaya said in a Hurriyet Daily News report.

According to the CNN Turk television broadcaster, a total of 10 ambulances left from the scene to hospitals.

In August, 54 people were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up during an outdoor wedding celebration in Gaziantep. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that, "Daesh is the likely perpetrator of the attack".

Cities in south-east Turkey have been targeted by deadly blasts over the past year, linked either to ISIL or the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), an armed group outlawed in Turkey.

Metin Gurcan, a former Turkish military officer and columnist, told Al Jazeera that, "Isil Islamic State] is trying to exacerbate already tense ethnic and sectarian cleavages in the south-east of Turkey".

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