Armed assailants attack wedding, killing at least 44Armed assailants attack wedding, killing at least 44

At least 44 people were killed in an attack on a wedding party a village of Mardin in southeastern Turkey, a mainly Kurdish area, on Monday. Turkish officials have ruled out that terrorists could be involved.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).Television broadcasters 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 Reuters 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.“There were a few people, they broke into the house and started spraying the place with bullets, hitting both men and women, their faces were covered with masks,” said a 20-year-old female eyewitness, who declined to be named.She said there were some 200 people at the wedding party.The assailants escaped from the isolated region of Turkey on the border with Syria before soldiers surrounded the village and cut off road access. Pursuit of the attackers was being hindered by a sandstorm, authorities said.Local media said the families of both the bride and the groom included members of the Village Guard, a heavily armed state-backed militia set up to combat Kurdish separatist guerrillas and provide intelligence in southeast Turkey.