Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc took to the airwaves to blame the Syrian government for two car bomb explosions on Saturday that hit the Turkish border town of Reyhanli, killing at least 40 and injuring 100 others. 

The explosions in Reyhanli were orchestrated by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government and Syrian secret police, according to Arinc. Turkey currently houses over 300,000 refugees from the Syrian civil war. Hatay province, where Reyhanli is located, houses over20,000 refugees.

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Both U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned the attacks. The Syrian National Coalition, the main opposition group to al-Assad’s regime, described the attacks as “heinous.”

Following the explosions, hundreds of Turks took to the streets calling for Turkish PM Erdogan’s resignation and attacking Syrian refugees and vehicles with Syrian license plates.

Earlier in the day, Erdogan had suggested that the bombings were possibly associated with Turkey’s ongoing negotiations with the PKK, a Kurdish separatist group. Protesters on Saturday claimed that Erdogan's policies towards Syria resulted in the car bombings.

Reyhanli has been a major command post for Syrian rebels and a gathering place for refugees, who have been fighting the Syrian al-Assad government for over two years. Over 70,000 people have died in the conflict that began in earnest in March 2011.

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