45 killed in attack on Turkish wedding

ISTANBUL: Masked gunmen armed with assault rifles and grenades attacked a wedding party in mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey, killing at least 45 people including many women and children, authorities said. The attack on Monday evening was one of the worst involving civilians in European Union candidate Turkey's modern history. Interior Minister Besir Atalay said initial evidence did not point to involvement of the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party(PKK). Media reports said there had been a blood feud between two families in the small village in recent years. The deputy governor of the province of Mardin, Ahmet Ferhat Ozen, told foreign news agency by telephone the assailants stormed a house in Bilge village near Sultankoy, some 20 km (12 miles) from Mardin, hurling grenades and opening fire on wedding guests. The assailants escaped from the isolated region of Turkey on the border with Syria before soldiers surrounded the village and cut off road access.