A street vendor warms his foot around a fire during cold weather in the rebel-controlled area of Maaret al-Numan town in Idlib province, Syria, January 4, 2016. (Photo by Khalil Ashawi/Reuters)

A combination picture shows Aleppo's Umayyad mosque, Syria, before it was damaged on March 12, 2009 (top) and after it was damaged (bottom) December 13, 2016. (Photo by Omar Sanadiki/Reuters)

A girl pours water over a dog to cool it down, in the rebel held besieged town of Douma, eastern Damascus suburb of Ghouta, Syria, June 23, 2016. (Photo by Bassam Khabieh/Reuters)

A Syrian boy looks through a gate as others wait to cross into Syria at Oncupinar border crossing in the southeastern city of Kilis, Turkey February 11, 2016.. (Photo by Osman Orsal/Reuters)

A girl practices martial arts during a training at a school in Syrian opposition-held village of al-Jeineh, Syria on April 11, 2021. (Photo by Khalil Ashawi/Reuters)

In one of the deadliest attacks in Turkey in recent years, two car bombs exploded near the border with Syria on Saturday, killing 43 and wounding 140 others. Turkish officials blamed the attack on a group linked to Syria, and a deputy prime minister called the neighboring country's intelligence service and military "the usual suspects."

The blasts, which were 15 minutes apart and hit the town of Reyhanli's busiest street, raised fears that Turkey could increasingly be drawn into Syria's brutal civil war.

Turkey already hosts Syria's political opposition and rebel commanders, has given shelter to hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees and in the past retaliated against Syrian shells that landed in Turkey.

A woman reacts as rescuers search for survivors through the rubble of collapsed buildings in Adana, on February 6, 2023 after a 7,8 magnitude earthquake struck the country's south-east. The combined death toll has risen to over 1,900 for Turkey and Syria after the region's strongest quake in nearly a century. Turkey's emergency services said at least 1,121 people died in the earthquake, with another 783 confirmed fatalities in Syria. (Photo by Can Erok/AFP Photo)

A Swiss police officer accompanies a migrant from Syria carrying her baby, upon her arrival at the railway station in the north-eastern Swiss town of Buchs September 1, 2015. (Photo by Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters)