The Turkish military on Thursday pounded positions held by the Takfiri group, ISIL, in Syria after a Turkish soldier was killed by fire from an area controlled by the insurgents.

The Turkish military on Thursday pounded positions held by the Takfiri group, ISIL, in Syria after a Turkish soldier was killed by fire from an area controlled by the insurgents.

The clashes -- the most serious yet between the Turkish army and ISIL (so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Levant) -- came after the killing of 32 people in a suicide bombing Monday, blamed on the Takfiri group, sparked an upsurge in violence.   

A day after the fatal shooting of two police claimed by Kurdish militants as "revenge" for the suicide bombing in the town of Suruc on the Syrian border, a policeman was shot dead in the majority Kurdish city of Diyarbakir.

The soldier was killed from fire from an area controlled by ISIL in Syria in the Turkish border region of Kilis, the state Anatolia news agency said.

The Dogan news agency said four soldiers had been wounded.

Turkish tanks from the fifth armored brigade then responded by opening fire on targets controlled by ISIL militants in Syria, NTV television said, adding that one ISIL militant had also been killed.

Thirty-two people -- mainly young activists, one as young as 18, preparing for an aid mission to Syria -- were killed on Monday in a devastating suicide bombing in Suruc.

The attack prompted angry demonstrations by pro-Kurdish activists in several towns, who took to the streets to condemn the attack and protest against Ankara's policy in war-torn neighboring Syria.

Turkey has been accused of colluding in the past with ISIL extremists in the hope they might prove useful in its aim of knocking out the Syrian government.

The military wing of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) claimed the killing of the two police in the border town of Ceylanpinar, accusing the two slain officers of collaborating with ISIL extremists.