Forty-four killed in attack on wedding in Turkey

Tuesday, May 5, 2009 at 9:12 PM Posted by Beijing News


At least 44 people were killed Monday in an attack on a wedding party in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast, an official said, as witnesses suggested a clan feud may be behind the shooting.

At least another 10 people were wounded in the massacre in Bilge, a small village in the province of Mardin, the official from the governor's office told AFP on the condition of anonymity.

Villagers said the shooting might be linked to a dispute between families, and even a full-fledged blood feud.

There were conflicting reports about how the incident occurred.

Four masked men, each coming from a different direction, hurled hand grenades and then opened fire at the crowd just as an imam, or a Muslim preacher, was performing a religious ceremony, the Milliyet newspaper reported on its website.

The assailants managed to escape in the dark as a sandstorm further worsened visibility in the area, several dozen kilometres miles from the Syrian border, it said, adding that most victims were women and children.

The Haberturk news channel said the assailants herded women and children into a room and then sprayed them with bullets.

Blood feuds are frequent in Turkey's Kurdish-majority southeast, where mediaeval traditions persist, illiteracy is high and many see the gun as a legitimate tool to settle scores and defend one's honor.

Hostilities are triggered by various reasons such as land disputes, unpaid debts, abductions or girls eloping with undesirable grooms.

Army troops sealed off Bilge after the incident and launched a massive operation to hunt down the unidentified assailants, an AFP reporter said.

Ambulances shuttled between the village and Mardin city, where the bodies and the wounded were taken.

Television footage showed relatives wailing outside a hospital, some throwing themselves to the ground in grief.

Rebels from the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party PKK are also active in southeast Turkey, where they have waged a bloody 24-year campaign for self-rule.

Many men in Bilge were members of the so-called village guard, a government-armed militia supporting the army in the fight against the PKK.

There were 32 households in the village and all inhabitants belonged to the same clan, Anatolia news agency reported.

In Ankara, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was briefed about the incident by Interior Minister Besir Atalay, Anatolia said.





A stuntman walks on a tightrope in China to break a world record. REUTERS/Stringer

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