Reyhanlı attacks not linked to al-Qaeda: Turkish Police

ISTANBUL

Twin bombings were carried out in Reyhanlı’s city center on May 11. DAILY NEWS photo, Emrah GÜREL

The Turkish National Police has said the claims of the twin bombings in Turkey’s southern province in May being linked to al-Qaeda are untrue. 

In a statement released on Oct. 2, the Turkish National Police said news that appeared on some media outlets, which claimed the al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria was behind the bombings in Hatay’s Reyhanlı district on May 11, were false. 

The statement said the news was based on a website named “breakingnews.sy”, which published both in Arabic and English and was a supporter of the Syrian government. However no evidence could be found that the statement on the website was linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria, it said.

Twin bombings were carried out in Reyhanlı’s city center on May 11, leaving 53 dead and numerous injured. Some 20 people of the 35 detainees were arrested and two were released on judicial control during the course of the investigation. 

The statement said the arrested people were either members of the Syrian government’s intelligence bureau or had supplied financial and logistical support through the leader of the outlawed Turkish People’s Liberation Party-Front (THKP-C), Mihraç Ural, who is being sought with red notice.