REYHANLI, Turkey — Turkey's interior minister said Sunday authorities have detained nine people in connection with the car bomb attacks that killed 46 people in a Turkish town near the Syrian border.
Muammer Guler says the attacks were carried out by a group linked to Syria's intelligence service, but did not name the group.
Syria on Sunday rejected Turkey's allegations that it was behind the bombs.
Guler said authorities had so far identified 35 people who died in the attack and three of them were Syrians.
Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said those involved in the bombings in Reyhanli on Saturday were thought also to have carried out an attack on the Syrian coastal town of Banias a week ago, in which fighters backing Assad were reported to have killed at least 62 people.
"The attack has nothing to do with the Syrian refugees in Turkey, it's got everything to do with the Syrian regime," Davutoglu said in an interview on TRT television.
"We should be careful against ethnic provocations in Turkey and Lebanon after the Banias massacre," he said.
Syrian Information Minister Omran Zubi denied any Syrian involvement and rejected what he called "unfounded accusations".
The Syrian conflict, now in its third year, has inflamed a confrontation between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims in the Middle East, with Shi'ite Iran supporting Assad, and Sunni powers like Saudi Arabia backing the rebels.
Banias is a Sunni pocket in the midst of a large Alawite enclave on Syria's Mediterranean coast, and activists in the area accuse militias loyal to Assad, an Alawite, of ethnic attacks.
Reyhanli also has a significant Sunni population, including thousands of Syrians, and has become a logistics base for the rebels fighting Assad just over the border.
© 2023 NewsmaxWorld. All rights reserved.