Turkey closes border gate on Syria frontier for 'security reasons'

Turkish Minister of Customs and Trade Hayati Yazici said Tuesday that the Yayladagi Customs Gate on Turkish-Syrian border was closed temporarily for security reasons. In a written statement, Yazici said the border crossing was closed to prevent the perpetrators of the Reyhanli blast on May 18 from fleeing. The twin car bombings in Reyhanli town killed at least 51 people and wounded many others. The attacks were the deadliest spill over in Turkey from violence in Syria since the uprising began in March 2011.      Yazici reminded that the customs services would continue for a period of one month at Yayladagi, saying that the border gate might reopen if planned improvements to the gate were completed by then.