Nine held over Turkey car bombings

Turkey’s prime minister insisted the country would not fall for a “dirty scenario” and be dragged into its neighbour’s civil war.

The bombings left 46 people dead and marked the biggest incident of violence across the border since the start of Syria’s bloody civil war, raising fears of Turkey being pulled deeper into the conflict.

Despite harsh accusations between Turkey and Syria signalling a sharp escalation of already high tensions between the two former allies, Recep Tayyip Erodgan insisted that Turkey would “maintain our extreme cool-headedness in the face of efforts and provocations to drag us into the bloody quagmire in Syria”.

Nine people were detained overnight, including the alleged mastermind of the attack, and more were expected, officials said during a joint press conference in Hatay, near the border town of Reyhanli where the bombs struck. Syria denies involvement in the bombings.

“This incident was carried out by an organisation ... which is in close contact to pro-regime groups in Syria and I say this very clearly, with the Syrian mukhabarat,” said Turkish interior minister Muammer Guler. He did not name the organisation.

Deputy prime minister Besir Atalay said Turkish authorities determined that the nine were involved through their “testimonies and confessions”, but did not elaborate.

Saturday’s twin bombings 15 minutes apart damaged some 850 buildings in the town, a hub for Syrian refugees and rebels just across the border from Syria’s Idlib province. It also wounded dozens of people, including 50 who remained in hospital yesterday.

Syria and Turkey became adversaries early on during the uprising against Syrian president Bashar Assad that erupted in March 2011. Since then, Turkey has firmly sided with the Syrian opposition, hosting its leaders along with rebel commanders and providing refuge to hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees.

Authorities had so far identified 35 of the dead, three of them Syrians. Families began burying their loved ones in funerals yesterday.

Earlier in Damascus, Syrian information minister Omran al-Zoubi rejected Turkey’s charges that Assad’s regime was behind the bombs.

“Syria didn’t and will never undertake such acts because our values don’t allow us to do this,” Mr Al-Zoubi told a news conference.

He accused Turkey of destabilising the border areas between the two countries by supporting the rebels, who the regime has labelled terrorists.

“They turned houses of civilian Turks, their farms, their property into a centre and passageway for terrorist groups from all over the world,” Mr Al-Zoubi said. “They facilitated and still are the passage of weapons and explosives and money and murders to Syria.”

Mr Al-Zoubi also branded Mr Erdogan a “killer and a butcher”, adding that the Turkish leader “has no right to build his glory on the blood of the Turkish and Syrian people”.

Tensions had earlier flared between the Syrian regime and Turkey after shells fired from Syria landed on the Turkish side, killing five Turks, and prompting Germany, the Netherlands and the US to send two batteries of Patriot air defence missiles each to protect their Nato ally.

Speaking to Turkish reporters in Berlin late on Saturday, Ahmet Davutoglu said his country would hold those responsible for the bombings but had no immediate plans to involve its Nato allies.

After publicly pointing the finger at Damascus, Turkey will probably have to respond to such a brazen violation of its sovereignty – again raising the risk of a regional war. Mr Erdogan is flying to the US for talks with President Barack Obama next week. In the wake of the car bombs, both men could come under greater pressure to take action.