Turkey is suspecting Islamic State (ISIS) could be behind the Ankara bombings that left around 100 people dead, said Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.
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Davutoglu said the attacks that targeted activists gathering for a rally to call for peace with the Kurdish rebels were aimed to “cast a shadow” over Turkey’s November 1 election and to influence the result.
The prime minister added: “We ascertained how these two suicide bombers arrived at the square and how they carried the bomb”.
The premier told private broadcaster NTV that authorities were close to identifying the two suicide bombers who carried out the attacks in Ankara on Saturday.
Senior security officials say that the bombing bears the hallmarks of an Islamic State attack and is similar to the suicide bombing in the border town of Suruc which killed 33 people in July. Thousands of people, many chanting anti-government slogans, gathered in central Ankara on Sunday near the scene of bomb blasts which killed at least 95 people, mourning the victims of the most deadly attack of its kind on Turkish soil.
The suicide bombings that ripped through a rally promoting peace in Turkey’s capital have magnified the political uncertainty ahead of a key election November. 1 and raised fears that the country may be heading toward an extended period of instability.
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Hours after the attack, Kurdish rebels battling Turkish security forces followed through with plans to declare a unilateral ceasefire in an attempt to reduce tensions before the election. A pro-Kurdish party has said up to 128 people died.
Riot police with water cannon and armoured vehicles stood byas the crowd, a few chanting “Thief, Murderer Erdogan” and waving HDP flags, moved towards the mosque in the working class Umraniye neighbourhood of Istanbul.
But is not known whether this was in response to the bombing.
In a statement Monday, the HDP accused President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Davutoglu’s government of escalating the violence to try to push the party below the 10% electoral threshold to win seats in Turkey’s parliament.
On Sunday, police detained four more suspected Islamic State militants in a raid in the southern city of Adana, the region’s governor’s office said Monday.
At the June ballot, the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP) lost its overall majority after gains by the HDP, which was involved in Saturday’s rally.
It would have been a brutally cynical act for the PKK to attack a peace rally attended by Kurds.
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On Saturday, the PKK announced a new ceasefire to show respect for the victims of the Ankara attacks. A supporter of the Islamic extremist group ISIS was blamed for carrying out that attack, but the group never claimed responsibility.
