Explosion at Turkish-Syrian border gate kills 13, police search two suspects

Turkish police are searching for two people as suspects for a blast where at least 13 civilians were killed and 28 others were wounded Feb. 11 at the Cilvegözü border gate on the Turkish-Syrian border, in the southern province of Hatay's Reyhanlı district, Hurriyet reports.

Turkish police are searching for two people who parked two separate cars before the explosion took place, CNN Türk has reported.

According to recorded CCTV footage, the two suspects left their vehicles just minutes before the explosion. The broadcaster added that the police sketches of the two people had been prepared and that a search was under way.

CNN Türk also said there could be more deaths, but that some of those killed could have been taken over to the Syrian side of the border.

"This incident shows the accuracy of our approach and our commitment to both the issue of terrorism and the situation in Syria,” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said. “I want to make it clear that we will not make the slightest compromise in our determination in both cases.”

Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç said three of the 13 people killed in the blast were Turks. The explosion occurred in a car that came from Syria, and had not yet entered Turkey, in the buffer zone where humanitarian aid for Syrians is processed.

Twenty-eight people were wounded in the blast, Arınç said, adding that 13 of them were in critical condition.

Turkey's Interior Minister Sadullah Ergin, Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin and Minister of Customs and Trade Hayati Yazıcı went to Hatay late on Feb. 11. The three ministers were briefed on the incident and then went to the hospital were the injured people were being treated.

Republican People's Party (CHP) Hatay deputy Hasan Akgöl said the blast was an act of provocation. “This is an area where the rebel forces are strong and Syrian army members cannot get near,” he told NTV. “My personal view is that this is an attempt at provocation.”

Turkey and Syria share a 900-kilometer border that has been tense since the uprising in Syria started almost two years ago.

Turkey has been a strong supporter of efforts by rebels to topple Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad. More than 170,000 refugees, including army defectors and members of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), have taken shelter in camps in Turkey.
Two Turkish pilots, Cpt. Gökhan Ertan and Lt. Hasan Hüseyin Aksoy, were killed when their plane was shot down by Syrians on June 22, 2012. A report by a military prosecutor said last September that the Turkish F-4 Phantom warplane was shot down by a Syrian air defense missile even though the missile did not directly hit the plane.