Syria accused of seeking to pull Turkey into a ‘quagmire'

Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay told a news conference that nine people -- all Turks -- were detained for questioning and that some had confessed involvement in the attacks, which also left dozens wounded.

"Syria did not commit and would never commit such an act because our values would not allow that," Information Minister Omran al-Zohbi said.

"It is Erdogan who should be asked about this act... He and his party bear direct responsibility," he added.

NATO member Turkey distanced itself from its erstwhile ally soon after Assad started cracking down on pro-democracy protests in 2011.

Ankara has since become a rear base for the Syrian rebellion, and Damascus has already been blamed for a string of attacks on Turkish soil.

Can Dundar, a columnist at Turkey's Milliyet newspaper, argued it was too late to warn against attempts to drag Ankara into the conflict.

"Turkey seems to be sinking into the Syrian swamp... It has become a stakeholder in this civil war by directly supporting the opposition," he wrote.

The Syrian opposition National Coalition said the attacks were designed to drive a wedge between Turks and Syrians and called for more robust international action against Assad's regime.

Neighbours have been increasingly involved in or affected by the ever escalating conflict, which has already left more than 80,000 people dead, hundreds of thousands homeless and large parts of Syria's main cities in ruins.

In recent days, Israel is reported to have bombed Syria twice, Lebanon's Hezbollah militia has admitted it was fighting alongside regime troops and Jordan has warned that Syrians could soon account for 40 percent of its population.

Davutoglu said it was "not a coincidence" the Reyhanli bombings occurred as international diplomatic efforts to solve the Syrian crisis were intensifying.

The United States and Russia, one of the few remaining supporters of Assad's regime, pledged this month to relaunch efforts to solve the conflict.

Davutoglu also said Ankara was looking at "connections" between the Reyhanli attack and an assault on a Sunni district of Banias, a Mediterranean city in Syria, this month where rights groups say at least 62 civilians were killed.

Erdogan is due to meet US President Barack Obama in Washington on Thursday.

The West swiftly denounced the bomb attacks.

UN leader Ban Ki-moon said the perpetrators must be "brought to justice" and US Secretary of State John Kerry also condemned the "awful news".