Syria is denying that it had a hand in twin car bombings that killed 46 people in the Turkish border town of Reyhanli over the weekend.

The bombs ripped through crowded shopping streets in the early afternoon on Saturday in Reyhanli, in Turkey's southern Hatay province.  That’s where thousands of Syrian refugees came to escape the 2-year old civil war.  The force of the blasts scattered metals ripped from cars and shattered concrete blocks.

Syria’s information minister Omran Zubi claimed, “Syria did not and will never do such a act because our values do not allow this.”

But Turkey’s Interior Minister Muammer Guler said a group with known links to Syria's Mukhabarat intelligence agency carried out the attacks to target the refugees.

"The attack has nothing to do with the Syrian refugees in Turkey, it's got everything to do with the Syrian regime," said Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

The bombing increased fears that Syria's civil war was spilling over into neighboring states despite renewed diplomacy.  It’s enflaming regional tensions, with Shia Iran and Hezbollah backing the Bashar al-Assad regime, and Sunnis such as Saudi Arabia and Islamist militant groups supporting the rebels.