ANKARA, Turkey, Sept. 18 (UPI) -- At least seven people were killed and nearly two dozen injured in a car bombing on the Syrian side of a rebel-held border crossing with Turkey, officials said.

The incident occurred Tuesday at the Bab al-Hawa border crossing, the Turkish news agency Dogan reported. The injured were taken to hospitals in Turkey. The Anadolu Agency said the blast occurred in the area between the Sarmada village in northern Idlib, Syria, and the Babel al-Hawa border gate in Hatay province, Turkey.


No one claimed responsibility for the attack.

Elsewhere, Turkish soldiers said they prevented some 100 horsemen from entering Turkey illegally from Syria late Tuesday, unnamed military officials told Today's Zaman.

A statement issued by the Turkish Army's General Staff said security forces posted at monitoring stations in the Hatay district spotted the horsemen attempting to smuggle goods into Turkey about 9 p.m. The horsemen turned back after additional Turkish soldiers were deployed.

In August,Turkish soldiers stopped 4,000 alleged smugglers from entering the country in the same area, the paper said. The group consisted of approximately 3,000 people on foot, 350 riding horseback and some 250 vehicles, the paper said.