A total of 69 people remained in hospital, with 17 in critical condition.
Advertisement
Turkish authorities have said a destroyed suicide vest was found at the scene of the bombing.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but officials have said it appears to be the work of the Islamic State group, accusing it of trying to destabilize the country by exploiting ethnic and religious tensions. The deadliest was last October, when suicide bombers killed more than 100 people at a rally of pro-Kurdish and labour activists in Ankara. Gulen denies the charge.
They were members of the pro-Kurd Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), which has been a target for IS attacks in Turkey.
The bride and groom weren’t in life-threatening condition and were undergoing treatment, but the groom’s sister and uncle were among the dead, Anadolu reported.
The bomb went off as guests spilled out into the streets of the city close to the Syrian border after the traditional henna night party, when guests have their hands and feet painted. Women in white and checkered scarves wept outside the morgue waiting for word on missing relatives. “They turned our wedding into blood”, she said, according to Anadolu.
“We want to end these massacres”, witness Ibrahim Ozdemir said.
The Hurriyet daily said that DNA tests were under way to ascertain the identity, nationality and gender of the bomber.
“Every type of death is painful”.
“All the people here are suffering”.
The United States condemned the attack and said Vice-President Joe Biden would discuss the fight against terrorism during a visit to Ankara this coming week.
Anti-government protests erupted at at least one funeral, where threw plastic bottles and chanted “Murderer Erdogan!” During the first five months of 2016, 989 individuals in Turkey were detained on suspicion of having links to Islamic State, according to government statistics.
Turkey’s president has blamed the Islamic State group for the bombing of an outdoor wedding party in the southeast that killed 30 people and wounded 94 others. It has also supported some rebel groups in Syria.
“Our border must be completely cleansed from Daesh”, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in a televised statement, using an Arabic acronym for ISIS.
Islamic State is also fighting US-backed Syrian Kurdish rebels, who have taken ground from the hardline group.
A child suicide bomber killed at least 51 people and wounded almost 70 others at a Kurdish wedding party near Turkey’s border with Syria, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday, decrying the attack as an apparent attempt by Islamic State extremists to destabilize the nation by exploiting ethnic and religious tensions.
The wedding attack sparked an outpouring of sympathy in America and Europe, where ties with Ankara have fallen to a recent low after Turkish officials criticized what they call a lack of empathy from Brussels over the failed coup.
The suicide bombing followed a June attack on Istanbul’s main airport where IS suspects killed 44 people.
Violence also flared again this week in the largely Kurdish south-east.
Turkey has been battling the terror group as part of the worldwide coalition, and has suffered multiple bombings targeting Turkish citizens already this year, including a devastating attack at Istanbul’s Atatü rk global Airport.
Turkey’s Kurds in particular have come under fire from Islamic State. A fragile, 2½ year peace process between the PKK and the government collapsed last year, leading to a resumption of the three-decade-long conflict.
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.
Advertisement
Erdogan said there was “absolutely no difference” between IS, Kurdish rebels and the movement of USA -based cleric Fethullah Gulen, calling them terrorist groups.
