Leaders from around the world Monday continued to condemn Saturday’s terrorist attack on a wedding ceremony in southeastern Turkey’s Gaziantep province that left 54 people dead.
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“Israel expresses its condolences to the families of the victims in the city Gaziantep and Turkey, and sends its best wishes to the injured”, a statement from Netanyahu’s office said.
At least 22 victims were under the age of 14, according to a Turkish official.
On Sunday the president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said the attack had been carried out by a suicide bomber aged between 12 and 14 and initial evidence pointed to Islamic State. Turkish officials say the bomber was not among the 51 people killed during the attack.
The bride and the groom were wounded in the attack, the report said.
“As I can tell it’s never happened here”, he says. Authorities said about half of those killed – 29 – were children.
The deadly attack also came amid ongoing struggles between the government and Kurdish militants linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, known as the PKK, and as the country is still reeling from the aftermath of last month’s failed coup attempt, which the government has blamed on US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen and his followers. Just days ago, three separate bombings hit across the country in one day.
The suicide bombing follows a June attack on Istanbul’s main airport where IS suspects killed 44 people.
It added that the bombing, which it said had killed many children and women, resembled other suspected ISIS attacks on the party in Turkey, such as in Suruc in July 2015 and in Ankara in October.
And on Monday, Reuters reported that the specific kind of device used in the attack also suggests ISIS involvement.
Hurriyet said the type of bomb used – stuffed with scraps of metal – was similar to the explosives used in previous suicide bombings against pro-Kurdish gatherings blamed on IS in the border town of Suruc and at Ankara train station past year.
The target was a crowded street in a Kurdish neighborhood where the Kurdish wedding party was taking place, according to Turkey-based journalist Andrew Finkel. “It’s the cross-border settlement of scores by two actors fighting in Syria”.
A rebel source confirmed that opposition fighters were “preparing for a large offensive against Daesh in Jarablus which will be launched from Turkey”.
The wedding was for a member of the Kurdish People’s Democratic Party, which has deep ties to Syrian Kurdish fighters who have battled ISIS for almost five years.
The deadly attack also came amid struggles between the government and Kurdish militants linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, known as the PKK, and as the country is still reeling from the aftermath of last month’s failed coup attempt, which the government has blamed on US -based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen and his followers.
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Head of the Syrian interim government, Jawad Abu Hatab also condemned the “vile terror attack”.
