Posted on 10/10/2015 9:19:04 AM PDT by Dave346
ANKARA - At least 86 people were killed when two suspected suicide bombers hit a rally of pro-Kurdish and leftist activists outside Ankara's main train station on Saturday, weeks ahead of an election, in the deadliest attack of its kind on Turkish soil.
Bodies covered by flags and banners, including those of the pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), lay scattered on the road among bloodstains and body parts.
"Like other terror attacks, the one at the Ankara train station targets our unity, togetherness, brotherhood and future," President Tayyip Erdogan said in a statement, calling for "solidarity and determination".
Health Minister Mehmet Muezzinoglu told a news conference that 86 people had been killed and 186 wounded, 28 of whom were in intensive care. The death toll could rise further.
Witnesses said the two explosions happened seconds apart shortly after 1000 a.m. as hundreds gathered for a planned march to protest over a conflict between Turkish security forces and Kurdish militants in the southeast.
"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."
There were no claims of responsibility for the attack.
But the NATO member has been in a heightened state of alert since starting a "synchronized war on terror" in July, including air strikes against Islamic State fighters in Syria and Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) bases in northern Iraq. It has also rounded up hundreds of suspected Kurdish and Islamist militants at home.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Now what are the chances that this was staged by Erdogan to damage the HDP and provide an excuse for further media and security crackdowns? Erdogan intends to get his majority back by any means necessary IMO.
Quick! Blame the TEA Party!
Yet they have been among the very, very few groups who have been willing to speak up clearly and pay up personally --- specifically, to arm and fight for the Christians and Yazidis against ISIS.
May God rest their souls.
Yes, I’d be willing to believe that also. But it could also have just been some jihadi pigs, or unaffiliated pigs.
May these poor murdered people rest in peace, even if I would not have agreed with them, I would not have wished to seen them blown up.
We better elect somebody really good to be president, and he or she better do a really good job. The world was certainly not such a mess when “W” left office.
This nincompoop Obama has been a total and complete disaster, not just for America, but for the entire world.
Heck of a job Barry, heck of a job.
After an area is all mooslime, it is now the Sphere of Islam, the sphere of peace. It is so wonderful to watch how peaceful the Sphere of Peace really is.
Bushes fault.
Establishing democracy in the heart of the ME caused global warming, and that caused muslims to bomb Kurds.
Yes, but global warming caused rising sea levels and high unemployment and islamophobia, thus causing these bombings.
This is George Washington’s fault.
Killing people. That is what Muslims do.
HDP reported that those trying to carry away and help the injured were attacked by police.
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