The Los Angeles Times reports: At least 42 people were reported dead Saturday in a pair of car bombings in the southern Turkish town of Reyhanli, the latest apparent example of spillover violence from the conflict in nearby Syria.
More than 140 people were injured, with at least 20 in critical condition, according to Turkish officials and news reports.
The blasts reportedly caused panic in the town, where tension has arisen between Syrian refugees and Turkish residents. Reyhanli, in Hatay province, is just a few miles from the Syrian border and has been a magnet for Syrian refugees and rebels.
After the bombings, outraged Turks attacked Syrians and cars with Syrian license plates, according to reports from a resident and the BBC, which quoted local news reports.
Some Turks have objected to the influx of Syrian refugees and express fear that the region is being dragged into the Syrian conflict.
“I never witnessed any explosions when I was in Syria so they brought them here so I wouldn’t miss out,” said a Syrian woman, Fairouz, reached in her home in Reyhanli. “Today they are giving us many surprises.”
One way to turn the people of Turkey against those from Syria, though why doesn’t Turkey retaliate on its own? After all, Turkey is a member of N.A.T.O., has been offering sanctions/aid/supplies for the so called rebels? Another F.F. thought up by someone, to get more people against the regime in Syria? Consider if Iran was bombed and torn apart like Iraq, Afghanistan, now Syria, goodness, if the Salafis/al Qaeda ultimately win, the threat to Israel will perhaps what will blow the lid off the M.E.