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12 October 2015 Monday, 12:02
Home » National » Dual suicide bombing kills 97, injures over 500 at peace rally in Ankara

Dual suicide bombing kills 97, injures over 500 at peace rally in Ankara

A deadly dual suicide bombing occurred at a pro-Kurdish, left wing peace rally in central Ankara Saturday morning, leaving at least 97 dead and over 500 injured, dozens in critical condition. The worst attack of its kind on Turkish soil, there have been no claims of responsibility.
Dual suicide bombing kills 97, injures over 500 at peace rally in Ankara A deadly dual suicide bombing occurred at a pro-Kurdish, left wing peace rally in central Ankara Saturday morning, leaving at least 97 dead and over 500 injured, dozens in critical condition. The worst attack of its kind on Turkish soil, there have been no claims of responsibility.
According to the latest figures released by the Prime Ministry, 97 people have been killed and over 500 injured, dozens of them critically, in Saturday morning’s deadly bombing in Ankara.

A pair of suicide bombs went off about 20 meters (65 feet) apart at 10:04 a.m. local time (7:04 a.m. GMT) Saturday morning, just as people began gathering on Hipodrom Avenue in front of the Ankara Train Station for a “Labor, Peace, Democracy” anti-war rally.

Footage of the incident was released soon after, showing a line of young men and women holding hands and dancing in revelry, followed by a large explosion going off behind them and engulfing the people.

Photographs of the carnage depict large pools of blood and scattered body parts; bodies are seen covered with the flags and banners of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) and other left wing groups.

The crowd included HDP activists, leftists, labor unions, NGOs and other civic groups, gathered for a planned march in protest of the increasing conflict throughout Turkey’s southeast. Hundreds have been killed in the predominantly Kurdish southeast of the country since fighting resumed in July between security forces and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Witnesses said the two explosions happened seconds apart.

“I heard one big explosion first and tried to cover myself as the windows broke. Right away there was the second one,” said Serdar (37), who was working at a newspaper stand in the train station. “There was shouting and crying and I stayed under the newspapers for a while. I could smell burnt flesh.”

A ban has been imposed in Turkey on the broadcast of images that directly show the bomb blasts.

No claim of responsibility yet

Acting Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu met with intelligence and security officials after the attack, including with Deputy Prime Minister Yalçın Akdoğan, Interior Minister Selami Altınok, Health Minister Mehmet Müezzinoğlu and Ankara Governor Mehmet Kılıçlar.

Davutoğlu has announced that there is strong evidence the attack was carried out by two suicide bombers. Officials note that no vehicle was destroyed in the explosions, so it would have to be pedestrian suicide bombers.

The acting prime minister also suggested that a number of organizations might be responsible, including the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Kurdish groups like the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) or leftist groups like the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C).

The Justice and Development Party (AK Party), Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the HDP, as well as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, have all announced the cancellation of their scheduled campaign programs for Saturday.

President Erdoğan called for solidarity and determination, in a statement released after the attack: “Like other terror attacks, the one at the Ankara train station targets our unity, togetherness, brotherhood and future.”

Yet many hold the government responsible for the attack. An angry crowd booed and threw bottles when the health and interior ministers arrived in a convoy at the scene, and they were quickly driven away. Pockets of activists still at the scene chanted: “Murderer Erdoğan,” and “The murderer AK Party will answer for this.”

HDP blames government, says it has blood on its hands

The pro-Kurdish, left wing HDP was one of the major participants at the peace rally. The party has blamed the government for the attack in blunt terms.

“The government’s right and chance to hum and haw has long expired. You are murderers. Your hands are bloody. Blood has splattered from your face, your mouth to your nails and all over you. You are the biggest supporters of terror,” HDP Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtaş told reporters in comments broadcast on the internet.

Demirtaş argued that the Ankara bombing was part of the same, ongoing campaign, having two precedents: the bombing of an HDP rally on the eve of the June elections in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir; and a suicide bombing in July – blamed on the Islamic State – which killed 33 pro-Kurdish and left wing activists in the town of Suruç near the Syrian border.

Some activists have seen all three attacks on Kurdish interests as the work of the state, accusing Erdoğan and the ruling AK Party of seeking to stir up nationalist sentiment – a charge Turkey’s leaders have vehemently rejected.

“Suruç, Diyarbakır and now Ankara, all works of the murderer Erdoğan. We will tear down that palace,” said a 21-year-old university student named Tarik, who had been less than 50 metres from one of Saturday’s blasts.

The HDP has argued that Erdoğan is seeking to undermine its support – by associating the HDP with PKK violence and factional infighting – in order to increase backing for his own AK Party in the upcoming Nov. 1 elections.

The Ankara peace rally was organized by the Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions (KESK); the rally was to include members of the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions (DİSK), the Turkish Union of Engineers and Architects’ Chambers (TMMOB), the Turkish Doctor’s Association (TTB) and the pro-Kurdish, left wing People’s Democratic Party (HDP). The event was cancelled after the attack.

Oct 11, 2015 | BGNNews.com | Istanbul

Tags : Ankara, Bombing