Damascus denies responsibility for Turkey bombings

DAMASCUS - Agence France-Presse

The death toll from suspected twin car bombs that hit the southern province of Hatay’s Reyhanlı district on the Turkish-Syrian border has risen to 46. Hürriyet Daily News photo by Emrah Gürel

A Syrian minister denied today accusations that Damascus was behind a bomb attack in a Turkish town that left dozens dead, a day after Ankara blamed supporters of President Bashar al-Assad for the blasts.

"Syria did not commit and would never commit such an act because our values would not allow that," Information Minister Omran al-Zohbi said at a press conference broadcast by state television.

"We were saddened by the martyrs' deaths" Saturday in the town of Reyhanli, in southern Turkey and near the Syrian border, said Zohbi.
 
"It is (Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip) Erdogan who should be asked about this act... He and his party bear direct responsibility," he added.

Turkish Depuy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç said today that any links to the Syrian intelligence was only an idea that derived from information collected until now.

Saturday's attack was the deadliest in Turkey in recent years. It is the latest in a string of attacks in that country since the start of the Syrian conflict more than two years ago.

Syria opposition accuses regime over Turkey bombings

Key opposition group the Syrian National Council on Sunday echoed Ankara's accusation that supporters of President Bashar al-Assad's regime were behind twin car bomb attacks in Turkey that killed dozens a day earlier.
 
"The Syrian National Council condemns in the strongest terms the cowardly crimes carried out by collaborators of the Syrian regime in the Turkish town of Reyhanli," said the group, an influential faction within the leading opposition National Council.