Two car bombs exploded five minutes apart in the Reyhanli city center, which is only 5 km [3 miles] from the Cilvegozu border gate with Syria, on May 11 at about 1:40 p.m., leaving 46 dead and more than 100 injured.
Its location was also close to the area where Gen. Atilla Ates, then commander of the Turkey’s ground forces, threatened Syria in October 1998 with military action if it did not expel the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan. As a country fighting against PKK terror for almost four decades, the maximum number of people lost in a single terror attack in Turkey was in the PKK attack on a military bus carrying 33 unarmed conscripts on the Bingol-Elazig highway in October 1993. All 33 were killed, sending shock waves throughout the country. The heinous terrorist attack in Reyhanli unfortunately not only superseded the maximum number of dead in a single terror attack, but also became the deadliest attack targeting civilians. Interior Minister Muammer Guler said, “735 shops, 120 houses, 62 cars, and 8 state buildings have been damaged,” in the Reyhanli explosions.