Bombings at peace rally in Turkey's capital kill 95
Turkey suspects Kurdish or ISIS bombers are responsible
Nearly simultaneous explosions targeted a Turkish peace rally Saturday in Ankara, killing at least 95 people and wounding hundreds in Turkey's deadliest attack in years — one that threatens to inflame the nation's ethnic tensions.
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There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said there were "strong signs" that the two explosions — which struck 50 metres apart just after 10 a.m. — were suicide bombings. He suggested that Kurdish rebels or ISIS militants were to blame.
The two explosions occurred seconds apart outside the capital's main train station as hundreds of opposition supporters and Kurdish activists gathered for the peace rally organized by Turkey's public workers' union and other groups. The protesters planned to call for increased democracy in Turkey and an end to the renewed violence between Kurdish rebels and Turkish security forces.
The attacks Saturday came at a tense time for Turkey, a NATO member that borders war-torn Syria, hosts more refugees than any other nation in the world and has seen renewed fighting with Kurdish rebels that has left hundreds dead in the last few months.
Many people at the rally had been anticipating that the rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, would declare a temporary ceasefire — which it did hours after the bombing — to ensure that Turkey's Nov. 1 election would be held in a safe environment.
'Massacre'
Television footage from Turkey's Dogan news agency showed a line of protesters Saturday near Ankara's train station, chanting and performing a traditional dance with their hands locked when a large explosion went off behind them. An Associated Press photographer saw several bodies covered with bloodied flags and banners that demonstrators had brought for the rally.
"There was a massacre in the middle of Ankara," said Lami Ozgen, head of the Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions, or KESK.
The state-run Anadolu Agency said the attacks were carried out with TNT explosives fortified with metal ball-bearings.
Turkey's government late Saturday raised the death toll in the twin bomb blasts to 95 people killed, 248 wounded. It said 48 of the wounded were in serious condition — and a doctor's group said many of them had burns.
"This massacre targeting a pro-Kurdish but mostly Turkish crowd could flame ethnic tensions in Turkey," said Soner Cagaptay, an analyst at the Washington Institute.
Cagaptay said the attack could be the work of groups "hoping to induce the PKK, or its more radical youth elements, to continue fighting Turkey," adding that ISIS would benefit most from the full-blown Turkey-PKK conflict.
"[That] development could make ISIS a secondary concern in the eyes of many Turks to the PKK," Cagaptay said in emailed comments.
Protests at explosion scene
Small anti-government protests broke out at the scene of the explosions and outside Ankara hospitals as Interior Minister Selami Altinok visited the wounded. Some demonstrators chanted "Murderer Erdogan!" — referring to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whom many accuse of increasing tensions with Kurds to profit at the ballot box in November. Erdogan denies the accusations.
Later Saturday, thousands gathered near Istanbul's main square denouncing the attacks and also holding the government responsible.
Many people reported being unable to access Twitter and other social media websites for several hours after the blasts. It was not clear if authorities had blocked access to the websites, but Turkey often does impose blackouts following attacks.
3-day mourning period
At a news conference, Davutoglu declared a three-day official mourning period for the blast victims and said Turkey had been warned about groups aiming to destabilize the country.
"For some time, we have been receiving intelligence information based from some [Kurdish rebel] and Daesh statements that certain suicide attackers would be sent to Turkey ... and that through these attackers chaos would be created in Turkey," Davutoglu told reporters, using the ISIS's Arabic acronym.
"The [Kurdish rebels] or Daesh could emerge [as culprits] of today's terror event," Davutoglu said, promising that those behind the attacks would be caught and punished.
Davutoglu said authorities had detained at least two suspected would-be suicide bombers in the past three days in Ankara and Istanbul.
Turkey had been on alert
Authorities had been on alert after Turkey agreed to take a more active role in the U.S.-led battle against ISIS. Turkey opened up its bases to U.S. aircraft to launch air raids on the extremist group in Syria and carried out a limited number of strikes on the group itself. Russia has also entered the fray on behalf of the Syrian government recently, bombing sites in Syria and reportedly violating Turkish airspace a few times in the past week.
On a separate front, the fighting between Turkish forces and Kurdish rebels flared anew in July, killing at least 150 police and soldiers and hundreds of PKK rebels since then. Turkish jets have also carried out numerous deadly airstrikes on Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq.
Erdogan condemned Saturday's attacks, which he said targeted the country's unity, called for solidarity and cancelled a planned visit Monday to Turkmenistan.
President Barack Obama offered condolences to Erdogan in a phone call Saturday. The White House said in a statement that Obama affirmed that the U.S. will stand with Turkey in the fight against terrorism.
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ankara?src=hash">#Ankara</a>: After the attack, protesters clash with the Turkish police: they don´t help the injured. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AnkaraBombing?src=hash">#AnkaraBombing</a> <a href="http://t.co/E5PQPPMPDV">pic.twitter.com/E5PQPPMPDV</a>
—@RRYrevolucionCritics have accused Erdogan of re-igniting the fighting with the Kurds to seek electoral gains — hoping that the turmoil would rally voters back to the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP. Electoral gains by the country's pro-Kurdish party caused the AKP, founded by Erdogan, to lose its parliamentary majority in a June election after a decade of single-party rule.
The attacks Saturday, which even surpassed twin al-Qaeda-linked attacks in Istanbul in 2003 that killed some 60 people, also drew widespread condemnation from Turkey's allies.