Negligence led to twin car bombings in Turkey’s Reyhanlı: Indictment

HATAY – Doğan News Agency

DHA Photo

The indictment following the deadly attack in the southern province of Hatay’s Reyhanlı district two years ago, which killed 52 people, has cited “negligence” as the key cause of the incident.

On May 11, 2013, two car bombs exploded in Reyhanlı, close to Turkey’s border with Syria, killing 52 people, including five children, and injuring 140. The bombing was the deadliest single act of terrorism that has ever occurred on Turkish soil.

The indictment prepared about the twin bombings stated that a notice was issued to the police three days before the attack. The informant had said that the outlawed Turkish People’s Liberation Party-Front (THKP-C), which is headed by Mihraç Ural and which is allegedly affiliated with Syrian intelligence, was preparing to stage an attack in Ankara. 

The investigation launched after the notice found that the people who the informant mentioned had entered Turkey from the Syrian border a number of times. 

The indictment also referred to a post on Ural’s Facebook page, in which he threatened people who he alleged to have stabbed Syria in the back. 

“Arms dealers, hospital owners I warn you for the last time, I swear that you will pay for this flagrant treason because you have a partnership in every son’s blood that is being martyred in Syria,” read Ural’s Facebook photo, according to the indictment.

The case, which involved 33 suspects including two Syrians, was transferred to Ankara for security reasons. The next hearing will take place on July 10. 

The prosecutor who prepared the indictment, Özcan Şişman, was arrested on May 7 as part of the investigation into the halting of Syria-bound National Intelligence Organization (MİT) trucks in Turkey’s south last year.

Meanwhile, a commemoration ceremony was held on May 11 for the 52 people who were killed in the twin car bomb, on the attack’s second anniversary.

The families of the deceased and citizens marched to the May 11 Martyrs’ Monument in the district, chanting slogans.