At least 95 people were killed when two suspected suicide bombers struck a rally

of pro-Kurdish and labor activists outside Ankara's main train station just wee
ks before elections, in the worst attack of its kind on Turkish soil.
Bodies covered by flags and banners, including those of the pro-Kurdish oppositi
on Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), lay scattered on the road among bloodstains
and body parts. The HDP blamed the government which, it said, had blood on its h
ands.
Footage screened by broadcaster CNN Turk showed a line of young men and women ho
lding hands and dancing, and then flinching as a large explosion flashed behind
them, engulfing people carrying HDP and leftist party banners.
"Like other terror attacks, the one at the Ankara train station targets our unit
y, togetherness, brotherhood and future," said President Tayyip Erdogan, who has
vowed to crush a Kurdish militant insurgency since the collapse of a ceasefire
and resumption of intense violence in July.
As well as the 95 dead, 246 wounded people were still being treated, 48 of them
in intensive care, the prime minister's office said.
Witnesses said the two explosions happened seconds apart shortly after 10 a.m. a
s crowds, including HDP activists, leftists, labor unions and other civic groups
, gathered for a planned march to protest over the deaths of hundreds since conf
lict resumed between security forces and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in th
e mainly Kurdish 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 new
spaper stand in the train station. "There was shouting and crying and I stayed u
nder the newspapers for a while. I could smell burnt flesh."
There were no claims of responsibility for the attack, which comes as external t
hreats mount for NATO member Turkey with increased fighting across its border wi
th Syria and incursions by Russian warplanes on its air space over the last week
.
But Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, exposing a mosaic of domestic political peri
ls, said Islamic State, Kurdish or far-leftist militants could have carried out
the bombing. He said there were strong signs two suicide bombers were responsibl
e.
HDP leader Selahattin Demirtas blamed the government in blunt terms. He said the
attack was part of the same campaign as the bombing of an HDP rally in the sout
heastern city of Diyarbakir on the eve of June elections and a suicide bombing b
lamed on Islamic State in Suruc near the Syrian border in July, which killed 33
mostly young pro-Kurdish activists.
"The government's right and chance to hum and haw has long expired. You are murd
erers. Your hand is bloody. Blood has splattered from your face, your mouth to y
our nails and all over you. You are the biggest supporters of terror," he told r
eporters in comments broadcast on the internet.
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The HDP argues that Erdogan seeks to undermine its support and increase backing
for his AK Party in elections due on Nov. 1 by associating it with PKK violence
and factional infighting, a link the party denies strongly.
Sources in Erdogan's office said U.S. President Barack Obama called the presiden

t on Saturday evening to convey his condolences, condemn the attack and stress t
hat Washington would continue to stand beside Turkey in its fight against terror
.
KURDISH MILITANTS' CEASEFIRE
Davutoglu accused Demirtas, whose party garnered support from largely left-leani
ng voters beyond its Kurdish base to enter parliament in June, of "open provocat
ion".
Some activists saw the hand of the state in all three attacks on Kurdish interes
ts, accusing Erdogan and the AK Party he founded of seeking to stir up nationali
st sentiment, a charge Turkey's leaders have vehemently rejected.