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| Europe |
| 45 killed in attack on Turkish wedding |
| 2009-05-05 |
| DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) - Gunmen armed with assault rifles and grenades attacked a wedding party in mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey, killing at least 45 people, authorities said. The attack on Monday was one of the worst involving civilians in European Union candidate Turkey's recent history. Interior Minister Besir Atalay said initial evidence did not point to terrorism, suggesting he was ruling out involvement of the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Television broadcasters said there had been a blood feud in the village in recent years. The acting governor of the province of Mardin, Ahmet Ferhat Ozen, told Reuters by telephone the assailants, stormed a building in Bilge village near Sultankoy, some 20 km (12 miles) from Mardin, and opened fire on wedding guests. "There were a few people, they broke into the house and started spraying the place with bullets, hitting both men and women, their faces were covered with masks," a 20-year-old female eyewitness, who declined to be named, told Reuters. She said there were some 200 people at the wedding party. The assailants escaped from the isolated region of Turkey on the border with Syria before soldiers surrounded the village and cut off road access. Pursuit of the attackers was being hindered by a sandstorm, authorities said. Local media said the families of both the bride and the groom included members of the Village Guard, a heavily armed state-backed militia set up to combat Kurdish separatist guerrillas and provide intelligence in southeast Turkey. The fate of the bride and the groom was unknown. State-run news agency Anatolian reported the daughter of the village chief, called a muhtar, was being married when the attack occurred. |
| Posted by:Steve White |