At least 51 people were killed in a southeastern Turkish city close to Syria when a suspected suicide bomber linked to Islamic State group militants attacked a wedding thronged with guests, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday.
The Islamic State group was the “likely perpetrator” of the bomb attack in Gaziantep late on Saturday that targeted a celebration attended by many Kurds, he said.
In later comments broadcast live on NTV, Erdogan said the bomber was a child aged from 12 to 14.
Photo: AFP
Erdogan said that 51 people had died in the blast, and 69 were wounded, 17 of whom were “heavily” wounded.
The remains of a suicide vest were found at the scene, Turkey’s chief prosecutor’s office said in a statement yesterday, broadcaster CNNTurk reported.
The explosion was the latest attack to rock the key NATO member in a horrific year that has seen strikes blamed on Kurdish and Muslim militants as well as a bloody July 15 botched coup.
Gaziantep Governor Ali Yerlikaya said in a statement that 50 people had been killed, raising a previous toll of 30.
He had previously said 94 were wounded in what he described as an “abhorrent terror bomb attack on a wedding.”
Erdogan said in a statement there was “no difference” between the group of US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen whom he blames for a recent failed coup bid, the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party “and DAESH, [an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group] the likely perpetrator of the attack in Gaziantep.”
“Our country and our nation have again only one message to those who attack us — you will not succeed,” he said.
US Ambassador to Turkey John Bass condemned the “barbaric attack on innocent civilians,” and said that Washington would “continue to work closely together to defeat the common threat of terrorism” in a statement shared on the official US embassy in Turkey Twitter account.
Reports said the wedding had a strong Kurdish presence.
The Dogan news agency said the bride and groom were from the mainly Kurdish region of Siirt further to the east and had themselves been uprooted due to the flare-up in violence with Kurdish militants.
The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party said its members had been present at the wedding, which was also attended by many women and children.
The Hurriyet daily said the bride and groom — Besna and Nurettin Akdogan — were in hospital, but their lives were not in danger.
Erdogan said the aim of such attacks was to sow division between different groups in Turkey, including Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen and to “spread incitement along ethnic and religious lines.”
Dogan news agency said the suicide bomber had mixed in with the guests before detonating the charge.
Security forces are searching for two people who entered the celebration with the suspected bomber and then fled, it added.
Gulser Ates, who was wounded in the attack, told the Hurriyet the attack took place as the party was breaking up.
“We were sitting on chairs, having a chat with one of our neighbors. During the explosion, the neighbor died on top of me. I remember being underneath. If my neighbor hadn’t fallen on top of me, I would have died,” she said. “The bride and groom’s happiest day was poisoned.”
Additional reporting by Reuters
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique