05 May,2009 10:40 AM IST | | Agencies
Unidentified gunmen armed with rifles and grenades attacked a wedding party in southeastern Turkey on Monday, killing at least 44 people.
The acting governor of the province of Mardin, Ahmet Ferhat Ozen, said the assailants, wearing masks, stormed a building in the village of Sultankoy and opened fire on wedding guests.
There had been a blood feud in the village in recent years. The daughter of the village chief, called a muhtar, was being married when the attack occurred.
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 in the area.
Ozen said the number of dead could rise.
