Dublin (AFP) - Ten people have died, including a couple and their five children, after a pre-dawn fire Saturday at a site in Dublin housing members of the traveller community.

"We can confirm 10 fatalities now," an Irish police spokesman told AFP, but he could not say how many were children.

Members of two related families are believed to have died, including a baby as young as six months old.

"Unfortunately a husband and wife, their four sons and baby daughter and other relations are lost," said Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny.

"It's such an unspeakable tragedy to have an entire family wiped out in a horrific inferno," he added.

A number of other people were taken to hospital after inhaling smoke at the site made up of caravans and prefabricated buildings.

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Police officers in the south Dublin suburb of Carrickmines on October 10, 2015, where a fire killed …

Dublin Fire Service said it was too early to establish the cause of the fire in the south Dublin suburb of Carrickmines, which is about 16 kilometres (10 miles) from the city centre.

A police source said the fire did not appear suspicious but that a forensic investigation was under way to discover the cause and how it spread.

Emergency services were alerted shortly after 0300 GMT.

Irish President Michael D Higgins described the incident as a "dreadful tragedy".

He added in a statement: "My thoughts at this time are with the families and friends of those who have lost their lives and those who have been injured."

Local councillor Peter O'Brien said: "People went to bed on a Friday night looking forward to the weekend and never woke up".

"That's a hard thing to get your head around," he told AFP at the scene where people have been laying flowers.

The victims are believed to be from three generations of the same family living on the site, according to Irish media reports.

The Southside Traveller Action Group, which offers support to travellers in the area, said the community was "in a state of shock at the devastating" events.

People left homeless by the fire will be accommodated by authorities in Dublin, the group said in a statement.

"It is our understanding that... the names of the deceased will not be released today," it added.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A white Cleveland police officer was justified in fatally shooting a black 12-year-old boy holding a pellet gun moments after pulling up beside him, according to two outside reviews conducted at the request of the prosecutor investigating the death.

A retired FBI agent and a Denver prosecutor both found the rookie patrolman who shot Tamir Rice exercised a reasonable use of force because he had reason to perceive the boy — described in a 911 call as man waving and pointing a gun — as a serious threat.

The reports were released Saturday night by the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office, which asked for the outside reviews as it presents evidence to a grand jury that will determine whether Timothy Loehmann will be charged in Tamir's death last November.

"We are not reaching any conclusions from these reports," Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty said in a statement. "The gathering of evidence continues, and the grand jury will evaluate it all."

He said the reports, which included a technical reconstruction by the Ohio State Highway Patrol, were released in the interest of being "as public and transparent as possible."

Subodh Chandra, a lawyer for the Rice family, said the release of the reports shows the prosecutor is avoiding accountability, which is what the family seeks.

"It is now obvious that the prosecutor's office has been on a 12-month quest to avoid providing that accountability," he said. He added that the prosecutor's office didn't provide his office or the Rice family with the details from the reports. He also questioned the timing of the release, at 8 p.m. Saturday on the Columbus Day holiday weekend.

"To get so-called experts to assist in the whitewash — when the world has the video of what happened — is all the more alarming," Chandra said. "Who will speak for Tamir before the grand jury? Not the prosecutor, apparently."

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Samaria Rice, center, the mother of Tamir Rice, the 12-year old boy who was fatally shot by police l …

Both experts were provided with surveillance video of the shooting that showed Loehmann firing at Tamir within two seconds after the police cruiser driven by his partner pulled up next to the boy. Police say the officers were responding to a call about a man with a gun, but were not told the caller said the gun could be a fake and the man an adolescent.

The report prepared by retired FBI agent Kimberly A. Crawford concluded that Loehmann's use of force did not violate Tamir's constitutional rights, saying the only facts relevant to such a determination are those the patrolman had at the time he fired his weapon.

Loehmann, she wrote, "had no information to suggest the weapon was anything but a real handgun, and the speed with which the confrontation progressed would not give the officer time to focus on the weapon."

"It is my conclusion that Officer Loehmann's use of deadly force falls within the realm of reasonableness under the dictates of the Fourth Amendment," Crawford wrote, though she noted she was not issuing an opinion as to whether Loehmann violated Ohio law or department policy.

Lamar Sims, the chief deputy district attorney in Denver, also concluded that Loehmann's actions were reasonable based on statements from witnesses and a reconstruction of what happened that day.

Sims said the officers had no idea if the pellet gun was a real gun when they arrived, and that Loehmann was in a position of great peril because he was within feet of Tamir as the boy approached the cruiser and reached toward his waistband.

"The officers did not create the violent situation," Sims wrote in his review. "They were responding to a situation fraught with the potential for violence to citizens."

Another officer who recovered the pellet gun after Tamir was shot told investigators he first thought the gun was a semiautomatic pistol and was surprised when he realized it wasn't real, Sims noted.

Chandra, the Rice family lawyer, says the experts "dodge the simple fact that the officers rushed Tamir and shot him immediately without assessing the situation in the least. Reasonable jurors could find that conduct unreasonable. But they will never get the chance because the prosecutor is working diligently to ensure that there is no indictment and no accountability."

The pellet gun Tamir was holding shoots non-lethal plastic projectiles but its orange markings had been removed.

The killing of Tamir has become part of a national outcry about minorities, especially black boys and men, dying during encounters with police. His death was not the first to roil Cleveland, either: Earlier this year, a white officer prosecuted by McGinty was acquitted in the 2012 deaths of two unarmed black motorists killed in a 137-shot barrage of police gunfire after a high-speed pursuit.

Cleveland and the U.S. Department of Justice are moving forward on a reform-minded consent decree after a DOJ investigation found Cleveland police had engaged in a practice of using excessive force and violating people's rights. That agreement was in the works before Tamir was killed.

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Associated Press writer John Seewer in Toledo contributed to this report.

Residents inspect a site hit by what activists said were airstrikes carried out by the Russian air force in Kafranbel, near Idlib Syria October 10, 2015. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi

By Vladimir Soldatkin and Suleiman Al-Khalidi

SOCHI, Russia/AMMAN (Reuters) - Russian war planes pounded Syrian rebels unaffiliated with Islamic State on Sunday, insurgents said, helping Moscow's ally Bashar al-Assad reclaim territory and dealing a fresh setback to the strategy of Washington and its allies.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group that monitors the 4-year-old conflict, said the Syrian military and its Lebanese Hezbollah militia allies had taken control of Tal Skik, a highland area in Idlib province, after fierce Russian bombing.

That brings Syrian government forces closer to insurgent-held positions along the main highway that links Syria's principal cities. The area is held by a rebel alliance that excludes Islamic State fighters.

"The coming battles are going to be ferocious, the Russians are using scorched earth policy and they are hitting the targets very accurately but this is a battle of destiny," said Abu Hamed, the head of the military bureau of Jabhat Sham, an insurgent group that operates mainly in Hama province.

"We are fighting for our very existence and so this is why our fighters are exhibiting heroism and fighting for our beliefs against the Russian occupiers," he said.

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A general view shows a deserted street in the rebel-controlled town of Kafr Nabudah, in Hama provinc …

The Syrian army had made advances from the towns of Mourek and Atshan in Hama province using tanks, heavy artillery and new surface-to-surface missiles, he said.

Russia's Defence Ministry said on Sunday its planes had flown 64 sorties, striking 63 targets and destroying 53 fortified positions in the last 24 hours. As in the past, it described all targets as belonging to Islamic State, although most of the areas it said it struck are not held by that group.

Syrian state television also reported the capture of Tal Skik after an "extensive military operation" backed by Russian air strikes against "terrorist organizations" in the area.

However, the advance came at a cost, with the Observatory and a Lebanese television station reporting that a senior Hezbollah commander was killed in the battle while fighting on the Syrian government's behalf.

In recent days, Russia has dramatically intensified its 10-day-old bombing campaign. Moscow says it is targeting the Islamic State militant group, but most of its strikes have hit other rebel factions fighting against Assad, some of which have the support of Arab powers, Turkey or the United States.

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Rebel fighters carry their weapons as they head toward their positions in the town of Kafr Nabudah, …

The Russian bombing has been accompanied by a major advance led by Syrian government forces, backed by thousands of Lebanese Hezbollah militiamen and hundreds of Iranian troops, shifting the balance of power in the civil war.

Russia's intervention has infuriated Assad's regional foes, including most Arab countries and Turkey.

In his biggest effort yet to reach out to Assad's Arab foes, Russian President Vladimir Putin met Abu Dhabi's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who holds a senior post in the armed forces of the United Arab Emirates.

At the meeting on the sidelines of a Formula One motor race in Russia's Sochi resort, Putin said he welcomed the opportunity to discuss security in the region, particularly in the light of bombings on Saturday that killed up to 128 people in Turkey.

In a television interview quoted by Interfax news agency, Putin said he did not want to take sides in a religious conflict in Syria. Assad is a member of the Alawite minority sect derived from Shi'ite Islam, and his regional allies are Shi'ites, while Sunni Muslim states oppose him and back mainly Sunni rebels.

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A rebel fighter stands on a pick-up truck in the town of Kafr Nabudah, in Hama province, Syria, as f …

Turkey, a NATO member which has accused Russian aircraft of violating its air space during the bombing campaign, said Syrian jets and missile systems had harassed its fighters at the border on Saturday in the latest incident.

Moscow said its officials had held a second video conference with counterparts from the United States to ensure that flights would be safe. The former Cold War foes are both flying combat missions in the same air space for the first time since World War Two.

OBAMA POLICY UPENDED

The Russian intervention has upended the strategy of the U.S. administration of President Barack Obama, which has led a separate bombing campaign against Islamic State for a year but failed to establish strong ties with fighters on the ground.

Washington and Moscow say they have the same enemy in Islamic State, the world's most violent jihadist group, which has set up a caliphate in much of eastern Syria and northern Iraq. But they have very different friends.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin (centre R) meets with Abu Dhabi's Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed …

Washington and its European and Middle Eastern allies oppose the Syrian president and believe he should leave power in any peace deal, while Moscow supports Assad and says his government should be the centerpiece of international efforts to fight extremism.

Washington has announced in recent days that it is abandoning a failed effort to train "moderate" rebel groups opposed to both Assad and Islamic State. Other rebels fighting against Assad are equipped and trained by Washington's Arab allies and range from secular nationalists to Islamist militants affiliated with al Qaeda.

Moscow accuses Washington of effectively siding with other militants that are no different from Islamic State; Washington says the Russian campaign helps Islamic State by targeting its rivals.

In recent days, Islamic State fighters have taken advantage of the Russian attacks on rival rebel groups to advance near Aleppo in the north of Syria, the Observatory and sources on the ground say. The Observatory said there was fighting on Sunday between Islamic State and other rebels in that area, although no change in positions since Saturday.

(Additional reporting by Sylvia Westall in Beirut and Jack Stubbs in Moscow; Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

Members of the left-wing Labour Party (EMEP) shout slogans as they carry pictures of the victims of Saturday's bomb blasts during a commemoration in Ankara, Turkey, October 11, 2015. REUTERS/Umit Bektas - RTS3YMR

By Orhan Coskun and Ece Toksabay

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey is targeting Islamic State in investigations of a double suicide bombing in Ankara that killed up to 128 people, officials said on Sunday, while opponents of President Tayyip Erdogan blamed him for the worst such attack in Turkish history.

Government officials made clear that despite alarm over the attack on a rally of pro-Kurdish activists and civic groups, there would be no postponement of November polls Erdogan hopes can restore an overall majority for the AK Party he founded.

Thousands of people gathered near the scene of the attack at Ankara's main railway station, many accusing Erdogan of stirring nationalist sentiment by his pursuit of a military campaign against Kurdish militants, a charge Ankara vehemently rejects.

"Murderer Erdogan", "murderer police", the crowd chanted in Sihhiye square, as riot police backed by water cannon vehicles blocked a main highway leading to the district where parliament and government buildings are located.

The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), a major presence at Saturday's march and holding seats in parliament, said police attacked its leaders and members as they tried to leave carnations at the scene. Some were hurt in the melee, it said in a statement.

The attacks have shocked a nation beset by resurgent conflict with the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in its southeast and increasingly threatened by spillover from the war in neighboring Syria.

Islamic State fighters are encamped close to its borders, which mark also the frontier of the NATO alliance, and last week Russia launched air strikes in Syria, its planes violating Turkish air space on several occasions.

SURUC BOMBING SIMILARITIES

Two senior security sources said initial signs suggested Islamic State was behind the Ankara attack, and that it bore striking similarity to a July suicide bombing in Suruc near the Syrian border, also blamed on the radical Islamists.

"All signs indicate that the attack may have been carried out by ISIL (Islamic State). We are completely focused on ISIL," one of the sources told Reuters.

CHP opposition leader Ahmet Kilicdaroglu, speaking after a meeting with Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, said he had been told both suicide bombers were men.

State-run Anadolu Agency said police detained 43 suspects in operations targeting the Islamic State across Turkey from Sanliurfa in the southeast to Izmir in the west and Antalya on the south coast. It was not clear when they were held.

The Haberturk newspaper reported police sources as saying the type of explosive and the choice of target pointed to a group within Islamic State known as the 'Adiyaman ones', referring to Adiyaman province in southeast Turkey.

Turkey is vulnerable to infiltration by Islamic State, which holds swathes of Syrian land abutting Turkey where some two million refugees live. But the group, not normally reticent about its attacks, made no claim to the Suruc bombing and has made no reference to the Ankara attack in internet postings

The HDP, which expanded beyond its Kurdish voter base and drew in mainly left-wing opponents of Erdogan at June elections, said the death toll had risen to 128 and that it had identified all but eight of the bodies.

The prime minister's office said late on Saturday that 95 people had been killed.

The scale of the casualties eclipsed attacks blamed on al Qaeda in 2003 when two synagogues, the Istanbul HSBC Bank headquarters and the British consulate were hit, killing 62 people. Questions have been raised over whether a parliamentary election due on Nov. 1 can be safely held.

Prime Minister Davutoglu, exposing a mosaic of domestic political perils, said on Saturday Islamic State, Kurdish militant factions or far-leftist radicals could all have carried out Saturday's bombing.

Some direct their suspicions at militant nationalist groupings, with or without ties to the state, who are opposed to any concession to Kurdish demands for greater minority rights.

HDP leader Selahattin Demirtas said the government had blood on its hands, accusing it of failing to fully investigate the Suruc bombing or another attack on an HDP election rally in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir on the eve of the last parliamentary election in June.

But government officials made clear that, despite the security concerns, elections would go ahead.

"Postponing the elections as a result of the attack is not on the table at all, even as an option. The elections will be held on Nov. 1 as planned," one senior official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity as the government observes three days of national mourning.

"Because of the rising risks, the security at election rallies, which is already being increased, will be raised further. The election will be held in a secure way."

Erdogan hopes the AK Party he founded will regain the overall majority it had held since 2002, but lost at June elections, partly because of the success of the HDP.

After meeting Davutoglu on Sunday, main opposition CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu said he told the prime minister that the interior and justice ministers must resign over the bombings and that the HDP's Demirtas should not be sidelined.

WAR ON PKK CONTINUES

The bombs struck seconds apart as crowds gathered for a planned march to protest over the deaths of hundreds since the collapse in July of a ceasefire between security forces and the rebel PKK, which is deemed a terrorist group by the United States and the EU as well as Turkey. Some 40,000 have been killed since the insurgency began in 1984.

The government has shown no sign of stopping its war against the PKK, even after the militant group on Saturday ordered its fighters to halt attacks on Turkish soil. The government dismissed the declaration as a ploy.

Turkish warplanes struck PKK targets in northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey on Saturday and Sunday, and security sources said some 30-35 PKK guerrillas were killed in the northern Iraqi raids on Sunday alone.

"The PKK ceasefire means nothing for us. Operations will continue without a break," a senior security official said.

Newspaper headlines reflected a mixture of grief and anger.

"We are in mourning for peace," said the front-page headline in the secularist Cumhuriyet newspaper. "Scum Launch attack in Ankara," said the Haberturk newspaper. "The goal is to divide the nation," said the pro-government Star.