Bomb explosions in Ankara that killed at least 95 people Saturday brought Turkey's political and ethnic tensions, exacerbated by the civil war in neighboring Syria, to a grim new level.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the deadliest terrorist attacks in Turkey's recent history though suspicion quickly turned to the Islamic State group. The blasts targeted a gathering before a "peace and democracy" march called to urge an end to violence between the government and Kurdish militants.
The carnage in Ankara, the Turkish capital, came as U.S.-allied Kurdish forces affiliated with the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) were preparing to advance toward IS's self-declared capital of Raqqa in Syria, according to Nihat Ali Ozcan, who studies the Kurdish conflict at the Economic Policy Research Foundation in Ankara.