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Tensions Escalate on Syrian-Turkish Border

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Deadly car bombing on Syrian/Turkish border claims the lives of 46 people. The Turkish government is blaming the Assad regime of Syria as Syrian refugees pour into Turkey for refuge from the protracted civil war that has engulfed the country.
Deadly car bombing on Syrian/Turkish border claims the lives of 46 people. The Turkish government is blaming the Assad regime of Syria as Syrian refugees pour into Turkey for refuge from the protracted civil war that has engulfed the country.
Deadly Car Bomb Blasts Kill 46 in Worst Violence to Date

Twin car bombs in a Turkish town near the Syrian border have killed at least 46 people and wounded more than 100 others, and top Turkish officials are pointing fingers at the Syrian government.

Turkey’s interior minister, Muammar Guler, said car bombs went off in the town of Reyhanli, just a few kilometers from a Syrian border crossing. Massive explosions devastated nearby buiildings, and ambulances rushed to the site on Saturday, May 11, to treat scores of victims.

Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was “the usual suspect” in the attacks, particularly because Syrians taking refuge from the civil war in Turkey’s Hatay province clearly “have become targets” for the regime in Damascus.

No one claimed responsibility for the carnage, nor was there any comment on the explosions from authorities in the Syrian capital.

Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi, however, strongly denied any involvement. He told a news conference in Damascus that Syrian values would never allow it to do such a thing. He also said the responsibility for the bombing lay with the Turkish government.

In addition to tensions involving Syria, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan indicated the blasts also may have been related to his government’s peace talks with Kurdish rebels, an effort aimed at ending nearly 30 years of conflict.

Erdogan said “Hatay is also a very sensitive province,” home to 20,000 to 25,000 refugees. “There may be those who want to agitate these sensitivities,” he said.

Turkey has harshly criticized Syria’s President Assad throughout the course of the civil war there. Two years of bloodshed in Syria are believed to have killed about 70,000 people and have made hundreds of thousands of civilians homeless.

The U.S. embassy in Ankara condemned the attack in Turkey Saturday and vowed to stand with authorities in Ankara to “identify the perpetrators and bring them to justice.”

On Sunday, media reports indicated that nine people have been arrested in Turkey in connection with the car bombings.

Interior Minister Muammer Guler said the bombings – the deadliest incident on Turkish soil since Syria’s war began – were carried out by a group with direct links to Syria’s Mukhabarat intelligence agency. He added that some of those detained took part in planning the attack – conducting a site survey and disguising cars. He also said the alleged mastermind of Saturday’s attack was among the nine Turkish citizens detained, all of whom he linked to Syria.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said those behind the attacks were from an “old Marxist terrorist organization” with ties to Assad’s administration.

Turkish authorities are working hard to collect evidence and say more arrests are expected.

According to a Reuters report, the bombings took place as prospects appeared to improve for diplomacy to try to end the war, after Moscow and Washington announced a joint effort to bring government and rebels to an international conference. Officials from Syria’s opposition coalition, in crisis since its president resigned in March, said it would meet in Istanbul on May 23 to decide whether to participate.

A Syrian opposition group said the toll from two years of civil war had risen to at least 82,000 dead and 12,500 missing.

As the funerals for some of those killed in Reyhanli begin, Ankara is accusing Damascus of trying to provoke tensions between Turks and the more than 300,000 Syrian refugees seeking sanctuary in Turkey.

The Turkish government is weighing its response. “We will do whatever is necessary,” said one Cabinet minister.

But according to opinion polls, a large majority of Turks oppose any unilateral action against Syria. There is a prevailing fear that Turkey risks being sucked into the conflict.

Political observers say Turkey’s government will also be aware that Saturday’s attack could add to growing public unease over its strong support for the Syrian opposition.

Speaking Sunday in Istanbul, Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan has vowed to stay out of Syria’s civil war. He said Turkey will remain level-headed in the face of provocations aimed at dragging it into what he called the “Syrian quagmire.” But he added: “Whoever targets Turkey will sooner or later pay the price.”

Earlier Sunday, Syria’s information minister denied his government was involved in the bombings. Omran al-Zoubi said the Turkish government was responsible because it has turned its border region into a shelter for “terrorists” — the Syrian government’s term for rebels fighting to end President Bashar al-Assad’s autocratic rule.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu called on the U.N. Security Council to take action to stop the Syrian conflict. Speaking before a news conference in Berlin, he said the international community’s inability to act has enabled a “spark to transform into a fire. It is time for the international community to act together against this regime.”

No one has claimed responsibility for the bombings. Reyhanli is located in Turkey’s Hatay province, which hosts a large number of Syrian refugees from the war. Residents of the province staged several protests on Sunday, denouncing the lack of security along the Turkish-Syrian border.

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