2013 Reyhanlı Car Bombings
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The 2013 Reyhanlı car bombings took place on 11 May 2013, when two
car bomb A car bomb, bus bomb, van bomb, lorry bomb, or truck bomb, also known as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), is an improvised explosive device designed to be detonated in an automobile or other vehicles. Car bombs can be roug ...
s exploded in the
Turkish Turkish may refer to: * Something related to Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities in the former Ottoman Empire * The w ...
town of
Reyhanlı Reyhanlı (; , ''ar-Rayḥānīyah'') is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Hatay Province, Turkey. Its area is 367 km2, and its population is 108,092 (2022). It is near the country's Syria–Turkey border, border with Syria ...
, a town of 64,000 people, 5 km from the Syrian border and the busiest land border post with
Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...
, in
Hatay Province Hatay Province (, ) is the southernmost province and metropolitan municipality of Turkey. Its area is , and its population is 1,686,043 (2022). It is situated mostly outside Anatolia, along the eastern coast of the Levantine Sea. The province ...
, Turkey. At least 52 people were killed and 140 injured in the attack. Turkish authorities accused the
government of Syria The government of Syria takes place in a presidential system and is currently in a transitionary period under and led by a transitional government. The seat of the government is located in Damascus, Syria. On 8 December 2024, after the succe ...
of being behind the bombings, and within two weeks had charged 12 Turkish nationals who it said were backed by the Syrian government. The state-run Anadolu news agency reported that in February 2018, a Turkish court sentenced nine suspects to life imprisonment and 13 other people to prison terms of 10 to 15 years for the bombings; and that in September 2018 another suspect was captured in Syria and brought to Turkey by
Turkish intelligence loction 39°54'25.0"N 32°39'59.3"E The National Intelligence Organization (), also known by its Turkish language, Turkish initials MIT or MİT, or colloquially as the Organization (), is an intelligence agency of the Turkish government tasked ...
. The Syrian government denied responsibility for the attacks. Other groups proposed as culprits include
al-Nusra Front Al-Nusra Front or Jabhat al-Nusra or Jabhat Nusrat Ahl al-Sham, also known as Front for the Conquest of the Levant, and also later known as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham was a Salafi-jihadist organization that fought against Ba'athist Syria, Ba'athist ...
, the
Islamic State The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Daesh, is a transnational Salafi jihadism, Salafi jihadist organization and unrecognized quasi-state. IS ...
, and
Syrian Resistance The Syrian Resistance (), formerly known as the Popular Front for the Liberation of the Sanjak of Iskandarun (), is a Marxist-Leninist pro- Assad militia that operated in northwest Syria in support of the Ba'athist regime during the civil wa ...
. Following the bombings, hundreds of Syrians fled Reyhanli, and some residents blamed the Turkish government for bringing the Syrian Civil War to the town.


Background

Reyhanlı Reyhanlı (; , ''ar-Rayḥānīyah'') is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Hatay Province, Turkey. Its area is 367 km2, and its population is 108,092 (2022). It is near the country's Syria–Turkey border, border with Syria ...
is a town of 64,000 people in the far south of
Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
in
Hatay Province Hatay Province (, ) is the southernmost province and metropolitan municipality of Turkey. Its area is , and its population is 1,686,043 (2022). It is situated mostly outside Anatolia, along the eastern coast of the Levantine Sea. The province ...
, 5 km from the Turkey-Syria border and close to the busiest land border post with
Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...
, the
Bab al-Hawa Border Crossing The Bab al-Hawa Border Crossing (, "Gate of the Winds Crossing") is located on the Syria–Turkey border about west of Aleppo in northwest Syria. It connects the Syrian M45 and the Turkish D827 highways, between the cities of İskenderun and Idl ...
. Many Syrian refugees have passed through the town while fleeing from the Syrian Civil War. The nearby Cilvegözü–Bab al-Hawa Border Crossing, which is controlled on the Syrian side by rebels, is the busiest crossing point between the two countries. On 3 October 2012, mortar fire from Syria killed five people in the Turkish border town of
Akçakale Akçakale () is a municipality and district of Şanlıurfa Province, Turkey. Its area is 1,038 km2, and its population is 123,721 (2022). Akçakale forms a divided city with Tell Abyad in Syria, maintaining a border crossing. The Mayor is ...
. On 11 February 2013, the gate of the Cilvegözü–Bab al-Hawa Border Crossing was the scene of a deadly attack, when an explosion killed 17 people and injured 30 more.


Bombings

Two car bombs were left outside Reyhanlı's town hall and post office. The first exploded at around 13:45
EEST Eastern European Summer Time (EEST) is one of the names of the UTC+03:00 time zone, which is 3 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. It is used as a summer daylight saving time in some European and Middle Eastern countries, which makes it ...
(10:45
UTC Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary time standard globally used to regulate clocks and time. It establishes a reference for the current time, forming the basis for civil time and time zones. UTC facilitates international communica ...
), and the second about five minutes later. People attempting to help those injured in the first explosion were caught in the second blast. A ''
Cumhuriyet ''Cumhuriyet'' (; English: "Republic") is the oldest up-market Turkish daily newspaper. It has been described as "the most important independent public interest newspaper in contemporary Turkey". The newspaper was awarded the ''Freedom of Press ...
'' journalist reported controversy over the number of fatalities. It was suspected by some news sources that government and local officials had instructed local health care workers to limit the death toll to 50, while the real number was 177. While some Syrian refugees were caught in the blasts, the majority of the fatalities involved were local Turks. Although there is still no information about the names of the dead, local officials revealed their nationalities, and stated that 5 of 52 people killed by the attacks were Syrian.Güneş, Erde
'Syrian refugees victim of Reyhanlı bombs, too'
'' Hurriyet Daily News'', 16 May 2013. Retrieved on 18 May 2013.


Responsibility

Several options have been raised for the responsibility for the attack:


Syrian government – Mukhabarat

On Saturday, 11 May 2013, Turkey's two Deputy Prime Ministers
Bülent Arınç Bülent Arınç (; born 25 May 1948) is a conservative Turkish politician. He served as the 22nd Speaker of the Parliament of Turkey from 2002 to 2007 and as a Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey between 2009 and 2015. He also co-founded the Just ...
and Besir Atalay said "the Syrian Mukhabarat and armed organizations are the usual suspects in planning and the carrying out of such devilish plans", and Turkish sources accused Syria of being "behind the attacks". Syria, according to information minister
Omran al-Zoubi Omran Ahed al-Zoubi () (27 September 1959 in Damascus, Syria – 6 July 2018 in Damascus, Syria) was the Minister of Information in the Government of Syria from 23 June 2012 until July 2016. He died from a heart attack A myocardial infar ...
, immediately denied responsibility for the attacks, stating: "Syria ..would never commit such an act because our values would not allow that." On 11 May, Turkish authorities said they had detained nine Turks with links to the Syrian Mukhabarat (military intelligence service) as suspects in the bombings. On 13 May, Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician who is the 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as the 25th prime minister of Turkey, prime minister from 2003 to 2014 as part of the Jus ...
said that he held the
Syrian government The government of Syria takes place in a presidential system and is currently in a transitionary period under and led by a transitional government. The seat of the government is located in Damascus, Syria. On 8 December 2024, after the succ ...
responsible. By 21 May, Turkey had charged 12 Turkish nationals with the attacks, which they alleged were backed by the Syrian government. On 25 May, Erdogan repeated his accusation that the Syrian regime was behind the attack. Nasır Eskiocak, a Turkish national captured by the Turkish police on 10 June 2013 and for a while the prime suspect of the attack, said the attack was ordered by the Syrian Mukhabarat, and then organized by him. On 12 September 2018, the Turkish
National Intelligence Organization loction 39°54'25.0"N 32°39'59.3"E The National Intelligence Organization (), also known by its Turkish language, Turkish initials MIT or MİT, or colloquially as the Organization (), is an intelligence agency of the Turkish government tasked ...
announced that they had captured Yusuf Nazik, who they alleged is one of the main suspects of the 2013 bombing. He was captured by Turkish intelligence in the Syrian regime-controlled city of
Latakia Latakia (; ; Syrian Arabic, Syrian pronunciation: ) is the principal port city of Syria and capital city of the Latakia Governorate located on the Mediterranean coast. Historically, it has also been known as Laodicea in Syria or Laodicea ad Mar ...
. Nazik, born in the
Antakya Antakya (), Turkish form of Antioch, is a municipality and the capital Districts of Turkey, district of Hatay Province, Turkey. Its area is . Prior to the devastating 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, 2023 earthquakes, its population was recorded ...
district of the province of Hatay, confessed in a video-recorded confession that he played a key part in the bombing as a coordinator between the bombers and the Syrian regime, which he said masterminded the attack. He referred to a Syrian intelligence officer named Mohammed, who had the codename "Hadji". Between 2022 and 2025, Turkish Intelligence captured remaining suspects of the bombing except Mihrac Ural.


Al-Nusra Front / al-Qaeda / ISIL

* Al-Nusra: Mehmet Ali Ediboğlu (Republican People's Party, CHP), representing
Hatay Province Hatay Province (, ) is the southernmost province and metropolitan municipality of Turkey. Its area is , and its population is 1,686,043 (2022). It is situated mostly outside Anatolia, along the eastern coast of the Levantine Sea. The province ...
in the Turkish parliament, said on 14 May 2013 he believed the al-Nusra Front, al-Nusra Front (Jabhat al-Nusra) to have planted the bombs, in an attempt "to get Turkey into the war". * al-Qaeda elements: On 25 May 2013, the Turkish Hacker (computer security), hacker group RedHack alleged that leaked or hacked documents of Turkey's Gendarmerie General Command, Gendarmerie intelligence department linked al-Qaeda-related groups in Syria to the attack, which was denied by Justice and Development Party (Turkey), Justice and Development Party (AKP) vice president Hüseyin Çelik. Çelik stated that the documents were leaked by a private using a cell phone but its content is unrelated to the bombings and the private is under arrest.
On 27 March 2014, also Tacan İldem, Turkey's Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, OCSE, said 11 May 2013 attack was carried out by "al-Qaeda elements operating out of Syria", which, in May 2013, may have meant either al-Nusra Front, Jabhat al-Nusra or Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, ISIL. That statement was contradicted on 6 April 2014 in a written statement of the Turkish Foreign Ministry who stuck to their conviction that the attack was carried out with support from the Syrian government. * ISIL: Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in late September 2013, while threatening Turkey with suicide attacks if Turkey would not reopen its Syrian border crossings at Bab al-Hawa Border Crossing, Bab al-Hawa and Bab al-Salameh before 7 October, claimed responsibility for the Reyhanli attack of 11 May 2013.


Acilciler versus Turkish government

Turkish authorities on 12 May 2013 suspected that former Turkish Marxist group Syrian Resistance#History, Acilciler, now thought to be based in Syria, might have been revived by his leader Mihrac Ural, and might have ordered the attack. Acilciler was, according to ''The Huffington Post'', long-rumored to have been formed by the Syrian military intelligence service Mukhabarat. The Turkish government on 12 May 2013 believed that Ural and his group, with their ties to pro-government Syrian groups, had carried out the attack. Mihraç Ural, in return, has implicated the National Intelligence Organization (Turkey), Turkish Intelligence Organization.


Gülen movement

In 2015, former Adana Province, Adana prosecutor Özcan Şişman said in a letter to the ''
Cumhuriyet ''Cumhuriyet'' (; English: "Republic") is the oldest up-market Turkish daily newspaper. It has been described as "the most important independent public interest newspaper in contemporary Turkey". The newspaper was awarded the ''Freedom of Press ...
'' newspaper that he was warned by National Intelligence Organization, MIT officers about a planned bombing attack in 2012 and 2013, three days before the Reyhanli attack. And that he was urged by the officers to carry out an operation against the cell. Şişman said he refused to carry out the operation and did not inform the police. Şişman was arrested in the same year and was sentenced 17 years in prison in 2019 for obtaining and exposing state secrets and being a member of the Gülen movement.


Aftermath

There was widespread panic in Reyhanlı following the blasts, with many people attempting to flee the town. Clashes broke out between Turkish and Syrian people in Reyhanlı, and police were forced to intervene by firing into the air to disperse the crowds. Turkish residents of the town reportedly attacked Syrian refugees and automobiles with Syrian license plates. BBC Journalist Wyre Davies reported from the site of the bombings in Reyhanli that there was 'real anger' among the people on the streets, not just against whoever had carried out the attacks but also against the government in Ankara. Hundreds of Syrian refugees had been forced to leave, 'scapegoats for the crimes of others' in Davies' account, blamed for bringing the Syrian war to the town. The refugees were held to have made the town a target for Assad's agents in Turkey. The media also were unpopular. "Whoever carried out the bombings has deliberately and successfully driven a wedge between two communities who had always coexisted, even before the war, because of cross-border trade and other historic ties", the journalist wrote. In response to the attacks, the Turkish government sent large numbers of air and ground forces increasing the already heavy military presence in the area. Protesters clashed with police in the town on Saturday, 18 May, voicing their anger over the government's response to the attack and its decision to take in Syrian refugees fleeing the Syrian Civil War, Syrian conflict. Turkey sealed the border with Syria for one month in order to stop possible suspects from escaping.


Media ban

The Reyhanlı Court of Peace ordered all voice, written, and visual publications referring to the blasts' aftermath banned, including content describing, and images of, the injured and the dead. The court ruled that the written and visual content would jeopardize the confidentiality and outcome of the ongoing prosecution. On 16 May 2013, the Hatay First Criminal Court cancelled the order issued by the Reyhanlı Court of Peace. Only the state-run Anatolia news agency and Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) were allowed to cover visits by Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin and Health MinisterMehmet Müezzinoğlu to the injured in Antakya State Hospital. When the main opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, of the Republican People's Party (CHP), visited the victims at the same hospital on Monday, only reporters from Anatolia and TRT were allowed to cover Kılıçdaroğlu's visit, while reporters from the Cihan News Agency, the İhlas News Agency and the Doğan News Agency were not allowed to do so. Several media unions protested the media ban imposed on the Reyhanlı bombings and appealed to the courts to remove the ban immediately. The media ban was condemned by several journalistic organizations in Turkey. Atilla Sertel, the chairperson of the Journalists Federation of Turkey, stated that such bans would cause major misinformation and would result in misleading the public. The Press Institute Association of Turkey claimed the court order upholding the ban was a censure and a major blow to press freedom.


Reactions


Domestic

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said, "There may be those who want to sabotage Turkey's peace, but we will not allow that. No one should attempt to test Turkey's power. Our security forces will take all necessary measures." Speaking in Berlin, he said that the bombings were a consequence of global inaction in intervening in the Syrian civil war. Main opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu held Erdogan accountable for the bombings and compared him to Syria's president Assad. Erdogan threatened to sue him in response.


International

Syrian Information Minister
Omran al-Zoubi Omran Ahed al-Zoubi () (27 September 1959 in Damascus, Syria – 6 July 2018 in Damascus, Syria) was the Minister of Information in the Government of Syria from 23 June 2012 until July 2016. He died from a heart attack A myocardial infar ...
placed responsibility for the attacks on the Turkish authorities and said, "it was the Turkish government that had facilitated the flow of arms, explosives, vehicles, fighters and money across the border into Syria", and thus "had turned the border areas into centres for international terrorism". The United Nations Security Council, UN Security Council strongly condemned the Reyhanli bombings, stating, "Any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation, wherever, whenever and by whomsoever committed." Secretary General of NATO, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen also condemned the attack, calling it "despicable", and said that NATO stood by Turkey. British Foreign Secretary (United Kingdom), Foreign Secretary William Hague issued a Twitter statement saying, "My thoughts are with family and friends of the victims. We stand with the people of Turkey." United States Ambassador Francis J. Ricciardone Jr., Francis Ricciardone stated that the U.S. "strongly condemns today's vicious attack, and stands with the people and government of Turkey to identify the perpetrators and bring them to justice."


Investigations

On 11 May, the authorities had immediately detained nine suspected Turks. By 20 May, 18 people had been detained. Investigations have revealed that Ankara was the initial target of the recent attacks in Reyhanlı, according to Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey, Deputy Prime Minister Beşir Atalay. In July 2013, several National Intelligence Organization (Turkey), MİT intelligence officials were dismissed for negligence, after an inquiry concluded that MİT had had sufficient information to prevent the attack, but had failed to share it with police quickly enough.Today's Zaman, 14 Jul 2013
MİT provincial chief sacked over unshared intelligence in Reyhanlı attack


See also

*List of Islamist terrorist attacks *2019 Reyhanlı car bombing *Syria–Turkey relations *Syrian–Turkish border incidents during the Syrian civil war *Turkish involvement in the Syrian Civil War


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reyhanli bombings, 2013 2013 murders in Turkey 2013 building bombings Building bombings in Turkey Car and truck bombings in Turkey Censorship in Turkey History of Hatay Province Mass murder in 2013 21st-century mass murder in Turkey May 2013 crimes in Asia May 2013 in Turkey Syria–Turkey border Terrorist incidents in Turkey in 2013 Car and truck bombings in 2013 Spillover of the Syrian civil war Turkish involvement in the Syrian civil war Attacks on post office buildings Attacks on government buildings and structures in Turkey