Death toll in Turkey border bombings rises to 46
About 50 still hospitalized from Saturday blasts; Turkish officials suspect Syrian intelligence and military behind attacks; Syria denies allegations
REYHANLI, Turkey (AP) — An official says the death toll in a pair of car bomb attacks in a Turkish town near the Syrian border has increased to 46.
Senior ruling party official Huseyin Celik said Sunday three people injured in the attacks in the border town of Reyhanli died overnight. Around 50 other people were still being treated in hospitals.
Turkish officials blamed Saturday’s bombings on a group linked to Syria, and said the neighboring country’s intelligence service and military are “the usual suspects.”
The blasts raised fears that Turkey could increasingly be drawn into Syria’s civil war.
Syria’s information minister rejected Turkey’s allegations that his country was behind the car bombs.
Turkish Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi told a news conference that “no one has the right to make false accusations.” He said that “this is not the behavior of the Syrian government.”
Zoubi’s comments were the first official Syrian response since Saturday’s bombings in the Turkish border town of Reyhanli, near Syria.
The Syrian minister alleged that Turkey is responsible “for all that happened in Syria and what happened in Turkey yesterday,” but did not explain.
He also launched one of the harshest personal attacks on Turkey’s prime minister by an Syrian official so far, demanding that Recep Tayyip Erdogan “step down as a killer and as a butcher.”
Turkey already hosts Syria’s political opposition and rebel commanders, has given shelter to hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees, and in the past retaliated against Syrian shells that landed in Turkey.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.