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Car Bombings Kill Dozens in Turkish Town Near Syrian Border Car Bombings Kill Dozens in Center of Turkish Town Near the Syrian Border
(about 5 hours later)
REYHANLI, Turkey — Two powerful car bombs killed at least 42 people in this town near Turkey’s border with Syria on Saturday, transforming downtown office blocks into smoldering husks in one of the deadliest attacks on Turkish soil in at least a decade. REYHANLI, Turkey — Two powerful car bombs killed at least 43 people in this town near Turkey’s border with Syria on Saturday, transforming downtown office blocks into smoldering husks in one of the deadliest attacks on Turkish soil in at least a decade.
There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the blasts, which came 15 minutes and barely a mile apart. The site of the bombings, in a town that hosts thousands of Syrian refugees, stirred fears that the civil war in Syria was slipping across its borders. There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the attacks, which came 15 minutes and barely a mile apart. Hours later, officials with Turkey’s government, which has backed the rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, said they had identified the suspects in the bombing. The attackers, officials said, belonged to an organization linked to Mr. Assad’s intelligence services, though they did not name the organization or the suspects, or provide a detailed explanation of how they reached that conclusion.
One of Turkey’s deputy prime ministers, Bulent Arinc, explicitly called the government of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria a “suspect” in the bombings, without providing evidence, and raised the possibility of retaliation that could widen the war. Turkey’s swift accusation raised the possibility of an escalating conflict with Syria and the broadening of the war. A senior Turkish Foreign Ministry official said the government had not reached the point where it was considering a military retaliation, but added, “No crime will be left without a response.”
But other Turkish officials, including the prime minister, suggested the bombings might be an attempt to derail peace talks with the country’s own Kurdish rebels. In blaming Mr. Assad’s government, Turkish officials seemed anxious to stave off any possible backlash against thousands of Syrian refugees in Reyhanli or its allies in the Syrian opposition for the bombing. The town is in a region of southern Turkey where some Turks have bristled at their government’s willingness to make Turkey a party to the war, putting it at risk.
The bombings left one of Turkey’s highest death tolls in recent years. In 2003, Al-Qaeda-linked militants killed 57 people in Istanbul in two separate attacks. On Saturday, one of the bombs left a crater by Reyhanli’s yellow municipal headquarters, blasting out its windows and leaving files on aluminum shelves visible from the street. A nearby row of buildings, where apartments sat above stores, was completely destroyed. After the bombings on Saturday, angry residents smashed the windows of cars from Syria, and a Turkish newspaper reported that protests against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan later erupted in Reyhanli’s streets.
The second bomb appeared to have been far more powerful, sheering the facade off office towers in downtown Reyhanli and sending the burned shells of cars and motorcycles crashing into stores. If connected to the Syrian war, the attack on Saturday would be the deadliest spillover since the beginning of the uprising against Mr. Assad in March 2011. In October, shells fired from Syria killed five people in Turkey, and the Turkish government blamed Mr. Assad’s forces. At least 14 people died in a separate episode when a car bomb exploded at a border crossing.
If connected to the Syrian war, the bombings would be the deadliest spillover since the beginning of the uprising against Mr. Assad in March 2011. In October, shells fired from Syria killed five people in Turkey; the Turkish government blamed Mr. Assad’s forces. At least 14 people died in a separate episode when a car bomb exploded at a border crossing. The attack on Saturday occurred as Mr. Erdogan was scheduled to visit Washington this week to meet President Obama and discuss the urgency for a resolution of the conflict in Syria. Secretary of State John Kerry released a statement condemning the bombings and praising Turkey’s role as a “vital interlocutor.”
Speaking in Germany, Turkey’s foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, called for calm and said the timing of the attack was not a coincidence, given what he called growing momentum toward resolving the Syrian crisis, apparently a reference to a proposed peace conference on Syria announced by the United States and Russia. On Saturday afternoon, as news reports revealed the scale of the attacks, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu of Turkey called for calm. He said the timing was not a coincidence, given what he called growing momentum toward resolving the Syrian crisis, apparently a reference to a proposed peace conference on Syria announced by the United States and Russia.
Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, also made a reference to the war in Syria. But he appeared to link the attack to his government’s talks with the P.K.K., the Kurdish separatist group, to end three decades of armed conflict. Nationalist groups as well as the government’s opponents are against the talks, claiming that they would destroy Turkey’s territorial unity. Mr. Erdogan also made a reference to the war in Syria, and raised the possibility that the attack was linked to his government’s talks with the P.K.K., the Kurdish separatist group, to end three decades of armed conflict. Mr. Erdogan suggested that groups who prefer that Turkey remain riven by conflict might be working together.
“I want to send a message to my Reyhanli brothers — this is a sensitive process,” Mr. Erdogan said. “Those who cannot come to terms with this period — those who would not be positive about this air of freedom — might be involved in these acts.” Besir Atalay, a deputy prime minister — one of the officials who suggested the attackers were linked to Syrian intelligence — said Saturday that the attack was carried out from inside Turkey with Turkish cars, saying that license-plate numbers were part of the government’s evidence in the investigation.
Many people in Reyhanli assumed the bombings were connected to the war a few minutes drive away in Syria, and worried that the explosions would stir violence between Syrian refugees and their Turkish hosts. After the bombings, Reyhanli’s streets emptied, as many Syrians shuttered their stores and hid in their homes, fearing retaliation after some residents started smashing the windows of cars from Syria, according to witnesses. Mr. Atalay said that more than 100 people were wounded in the attack. One of the bombs left a crater by Reyhanli’s yellow municipal headquarters, blasting out its windows and leaving files on aluminum shelves visible from the street. A nearby row of buildings, where apartments sat above stores, was destroyed.
In a cafe near the outskirts of town where Syrian refugees gather, patrons all blamed the Syrian government for the explosion, saying it was aimed at causing trouble for Turkey, which has strongly backed the Syrian rebels in the civil war. The second bomb appeared to have been far more powerful, sheering the facade off office towers in downtown Reyhanli and sending the burned shells of cars and motorcycles crashing into stores. A cry went up as emergency workers pulled a body, wrapped in a black bag, from the rubble of a store. A woman stumbled through the wreckage, sobbing, near a car whose trunk was blown open to reveal a floral-patterned baby seat inside.
Near the blast site, a Turkish resident who refused to give his name said only that “Syrians” were responsible. A shout went up as emergency workers pulled a body, wrapped in a black bag, from the rubble of a store. A woman cried as she walked near a destroyed car, its trunk thrown open to reveal a baby seat inside, and the portrait of a child. Tensions surfaced quickly on Saturday in Reyhanli, as Syrian refugees who had been out that morning shopping at fruit and vegetable markets vanished from the rain-soaked streets, fearful that their neighbors would blame them for the attacks.
“Now, we’re busy with this,” another man said, as firefighters doused a smoldering store. “Tonight, the problems will start.” Munzir Khalil, a Syrian man who sat in a cafe on the outskirts of town, said he saw residents smashing the windows of cars from Syria. “I think the rage will vanish in a few days,” he said. Other refugees echoed the sentiment, saying Reyhanli’s residents had shown sympathy for the Syrians’ plight.
Turkish officials have been especially concerned with the possibility that sectarian tensions that have come to define the civil war in Syria will spill over the border, and trouble ethnically-mixed regions of southern Turkey. There are also fears that the sheer numbers of Syrians in the country would stoke resentment: Around Reyhanli, some 25,000 Syrian refugees live among 90,000 Turkish citizens, according to local officials. But near the second blast site, as firefighters poured water on what had been a post office, residents suggested that there would be more anger to come.
“Now, we’re busy with this,” one man said. “Tonight, the problems will start.”
Turkish officials have been especially concerned with the possibility that sectarian tensions that have come to define the civil war in Syria will spill over the border, and trouble ethnically-mixed regions of southern Turkey. There are also fears that the sheer numbers of Syrians in the country will stoke resentment: Around Reyhanli, some 25,000 Syrian refugees live among 90,000 Turkish citizens, according to local officials.
Speaking at a news conference in the nearby town of Antakya, Turkey’s interior minister, Muammer Guler, defended the refugees and absolved Mr. Assad’s opponents of blame, saying, “This incident definitely has no relation with the opposition in Syria, and especially with Syrian refugees in Turkey.”

Kareem Fahim reported from Reyhanli, and Sebnem Arsu from Istanbul. Karam Shoumali contributed reporting from Reyhanli.

Kareem Fahim reported from Reyhanli, and Sebnem Arsu from Istanbul. Karam Shoumali contributed reporting from Reyhanli.