At least 27 people were killed when a suspected suicide bomber targeted a wedding celebration in the Turkish city of Gaziantep on Saturday, President Tayyip Erdogan said in a statement condemning the attack.
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The governor of Gaziantep, Ali Yerlikaya, called the explosion a “terror attack”, and other officials said it could have been the work of either Islamic State or Kurdish militants. The number of people injured remained at 94.
Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Şimşek said that the explosion may have been caused by a suicide attack, adding that the death toll might be higher than reported.
In October a year ago, suicide bombers killed at least 95 people when they attacked a rally of pro-Kurdish and labour activists outside Ankara’s main train station.
Erdogan said there was “absolutely no difference” between IS, Kurdish rebels and Gulen’s movement, calling them terrorist groups.
Turkey has been rocked by a wave of attacks in the past year, either claimed by militants linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) – or blamed on IS.
People carry dead bodies into ambulances after an explosion in Gaziantep, southeastern Turkey, early Sunday, Aug. 21, 2016.
On Thursday, 12 people were killed in a spate of bombings blamed on the PKK, who Erdogan said had killed 70 members of the security forces in the last month alone.
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The explosion occurred at around 10:50 p.m. local time (3:50 p.m. EDT) in a part of the city where several university students live. “They will not yield”.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim condemned the bombing that turned “a wedding party into a place of mourning” and vowed to prevail over the “devilish” attacks.
“The aim of terror is to scare the people but we will not allow this”, said Şimşek, who also represents Gaziantep in the Turkish parliament. The PKK has since carried out dozens of attacks on police and military posts.
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In late June, three attackers, alleged to be IS militants, fired at crowds in Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport and then detonated their explosive vests, killing 44 people and wounding more than 200 others.
