Turkey vowed on Monday to “completely cleanse” Islamic State militants from its border region, after a suspected suicide bomber with links to the group killed 54 people, including 22 children, at a Kurdish wedding. Witnesses said a three-month-old baby was among the dead.
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A suicide bomber aged between 12 and 14 carried out the attack that killed at least 51 people, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday, adding that initial evidence has suggested it was orchestrated by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
A man mourns over a graveyard as people attend funeral services for dozens of people killed in last night’s bomb attack targeting an outdoor wedding party in Gaziantep, southeastern Turkey.
Just a half an hour away from Gaziantep is the border town of Kilis which has been repeatedly hit by rockets and shells fired from Islamic State territory, sometimes killing civilians.
“There was blood and body parts everywhere”, he said.
“In this area, we live in a ring of fire”, said Hilmi Karaca, a Kurdish activist who witnessed the explosion. But some ceremonies would have to wait because many victims were blown to pieces and DNA tests would be needed to identify them, security sources said.
Health Minister Recep Akdag said a large number of those injured were women and children.
The rebels, groups fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army, were expected to assault Jarablus from inside Turkey in the next few days. The groom was among those injured, but the bride was not hurt.
It is possible that the bomber had come over the border from Syria but IS is also known to have built homegrown cells inside Turkey in Gaziantep and even Istanbul, wrote its well-connected columnist Abdulkadir Selvi.
Azerbaijan as a country suffering from terrorism strongly condemns all its forms and manifestations, as well as the terrorist attack in the Turkish city of Gaziantep, which resulted in numerous casualties, Mammadyarov said in his letter.
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Another 94 people were reportedly wounded in the blast. “It is natural for us to struggle against such an organisation both inside and outside of Turkey”.
