Bombings, fighting engulf Middle East

Bombings, stabbings in Middle East lead to deaths.

Violence rolled across the Middle East, with suicide bombings in Turkey, stabbings in Jerusalem and continued fighting in Syria,

Violence rolled across the Middle East on Saturday. Suspected suicide bombings killed scores in the Turkish capital, two Israelis were stabbed and four Palestinians were killed in an ongoing clash over a Jerusalem holy site and fighting in Syria escalated amid Russia’s bombing campaign there.

BOMBINGS IN TURKEY

Two devastating explosions struck in the heart of Ankara, the Turkish capital, killing more than 90 people who had gathered for a peace rally.

The blasts, which officials called the deadliest terrorist attack in modern Turkey’s history, occurred near Ankara’s main train station just as Kurds and leftists planned to march to protest the recent resumption of armed conflict between the Turkish state and Kurdish militants. It is a conflict that has been waged for nearly three decades, but in recent times the two sides had seemed to be on the path to peace.

The prime minister’s office said late Saturday that 246 people had been wounded in addition to the 95 or more who had been killed. The bombings came just three weeks before parliamentary elections.

“We were expecting an attack in Ankara before the elections but nothing to this extent,” said Sedat Kartal, an Ankara resident who rushed to the scene after hearing the first explosion. “There’s so much hate and polarization, nothing is surprising anymore.”

Turkey is facing a number of destabilizing forces: violence related to conflicts with Kurdish rebels and the Islamic State group; political instability; economic uncertainty; and a growing flow of refugees from the civil war in Syria. Altogether, the currents buffeting Turkey have evoked memories of the 1990s, when it was also gripped by violence and political uncertainty, shattering Turks’ image of their country as a haven of stability and prosperity next to a Middle East upended by wars and chaos.

Turkish authorities were investigating claims that the attacks were carried out by suicide bombers. A similar bombing in July at a cultural center in Suruc, in southeastern Turkey, killed 32 Kurdish activists. No group claimed responsibility for that attack, but the authorities blamed the Islamic State, which controls large areas of Syria and Iraq.

Kurdish leaders, though, directed their anger at the Turkish state, accusing the government of supporting the Islamic State in the group’s attack last year on the Syrian Kurdish border town of Kobani.

STABBINGS, UNREST IN ISRAEL

Fears of a new intifada, or uprising, continued as Palestinians carried out two stabbing attacks in Jerusalem before being shot dead by police, while another two Palestinians were killed during a violent demonstration near the Gaza border fence.

Jerusalem has seen a wave of stabbing attacks linked to tensions over a sensitive holy site in the Old City that is sacred to Jews and Muslims. In recent days the attacks by Palestinian assailants have spread to the rest of Israel, while violent protests have erupted in the West Bank and along the Gaza border, where seven Palestinians were killed on Friday. The violence has unnerved a jittery Israel, and prompted the U.S. on Saturday to issue a fresh call for restraint by all sides.

On the Gaza frontier, meanwhile, protests resumed Saturday afternoon, with dozens of Palestinians throwing stones and rolling burning tires toward Israeli troops along the border fence. Gaza health officials said Israeli forces shot dead a 13-year-old and an 11-yearold.

Police came under attack in an Arab east Jerusalem neighborhood responding with gunfire, hitting a 25-year- old. Health officials later confirmed the man had died of his wounds. Violent protests broke out after the man’s funeral, with rocks and firebombs hurled toward police, who opened fire and wounded two people.

Protests also took place in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where demonstrators hurled rocks at Israeli troops, who responded with tear gas. In the West Bank city of Hebron, thousands took part in two funeral processions for Palestinians who were killed while carrying out attacks in recent days. Late Saturday, the Palestinian Red Crescent medical service said a 28-year-old Palestinian man in the village of Beit Omar, near Hebron, died from wounds sustained in clashes Thursday.

Some 1,500 people gathered in the Israeli-Arab city of Nazareth to demonstrate solidarity with the Palestinians. Masked demonstrators clashed with police in other Arab cities.

RUSSIANS BOMB REBELS

Syrian troops backed by Russian airstrikes seized a village in central Syria amid fierce clashes with rebels, part of a ground offensive launched earlier this week.

That offensive marked the first major air-and-ground assault since Moscow began its military campaign in Syria on Sept. 30.

Syrian troops have faced stiff resistance from the rebels, who have used advanced U.S.-made TOW missiles to attack Syrian tanks and armored vehicles.

Russia, a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, has insisted its airstrikes are targeting the Islamic State group and other terrorists. But U.S. officials said Russia has directed parts of its air campaign against U.S.-funded groups and other moderate opposition groups in a concerted effort to weaken them and bolster its longtime ally, President Bashar Assad, whose ouster the U.S. supports.

The Russian airstrikes come as a U.S.-led coalition wages its own air campaign against the Islamic in Syria and Iraq. U.S.

Two explosions on Saturday targeted a peace rally by opposition supporters and Kurdish activists in Ankara, killing at least 90 people and wounding 246. The blast was caught on camera. Turkey’s prime minister says the attacks likely were suicide bombings.

ASSOCIATED PRESS Relatives of people wounded at the explosions in Ankara, Turkey, wait for news about their loved ones outside a hospital on Saturday.