HATAY — 2013 · Major Tragedy

Cilvegözü Border Gate Bombing

ClosedSources: ALast updated: 14 October 2026

On 11 February 2013, a car bomb was detonated at the Cilvegözü border gate in Reyhanlı, Hatay, in the buffer zone between Turkey and Syria. Eighteen people were killed, five of them Turkish citizens, and 24 were injured. The blast came at a time of heavy traffic of people and vehicles at the crossing because of the Syrian civil war. In the resulting trial, Hatay 2nd High Criminal Court announced its verdict on 3 October 2017: two Syrian defendants were each sentenced to 18 aggravated life terms and two were acquitted. The person believed to have planted the bomb was reported to be at large. The attack was one of the first major incidents to heighten security fears in the area, before the far deadlier Reyhanlı bombings of May that year.

Date: 2013
Place: Reyhanlı (Cilvegözü), Hatay
Category: Major Tragedy
Case Status: Closed
Coordinates: 36.2400, 36.6300 ↗

Timeline of Events

11 February 2013A car bomb exploded at Cilvegözü, killing 18.
2013-2017The case was tried in Hatay.
3 October 2017Two defendants received 18 aggravated life sentences each; two were acquitted.

Sources

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