Turkey arrests nine suspects over Reyhanli bombings
Iran Press TV
Mon May 13, 2013 5:12AM GMT
Turkey’s security forces have detained nine Turkish citizens suspected of involvement in two recent car bomb attacks in the southern town of Reyhanli, where nearly 50 people died.
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay said in a press conference in the capital, Ankara, on Sunday that the nine suspects had been identified through their own confessions and statements.
According to police sources, five of the captured suspects are members of the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C), while the remaining four are members of the militant group Acilciler.
Turkey says Syria was behind the bombings of May 11 in Hatay Province that killed 46 people and injured over a hundred others, but the Syrian government has dismissed the claim.
Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoabi told a news conference on Sunday that Damascus “did not commit and would never commit such an act because our values would not allow that.”
The Syrian minister blamed the Turkish government for the Reyhanli bombings and the ongoing foreign-sponsored turmoil in Syria.
“It is (Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip) Erdogan who should be asked about this act… He and his party bear direct responsibility.”
Zoabi also stated that Turkey had planned the bomb attacks to use them as a pretext to justify foreign intervention in Syria.
The car bomb attacks in Turkey have also brought up condemnation by Iraq.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said on Sunday, “The Iraqi government expresses its… strong condemnation of the criminal bombings in the Turkish town of Reyhanli and expresses its solidarity with the Turkish people and the families of the innocent victims.”
“These crimes and the expanding circle of terrorism constitute an additional incentive… to increase cooperation between all countries, especially countries in the region, and coordination between them, to cut the circle of terrorism.”
MP/HSN
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