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
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