The Islamic State (IS) group is the prime suspect over the twin explosions in Turkey’s capital at the weekend that left nearly 100 people dead, the country’s prime minister has said.
Advertisement
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in a live television interview on October. 12 that the bombings may have been an attempt to influence parliamentary elections set for November. 1.
Turkish government believed that two male suicide bombers had caused the explosions, hitting a crowd of activists that gathered outside the main railway station to take part in a peace rally that campaigned for an end to the violence between Turkish government forces and the militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Mr Davutoglu said authorities were close to identifying one of the suicide bombers.
The pro-Kurdish HDP (People’s Democratic Party), which was among the groups attending Saturday’s rally, said 128 people were killed.
The sheer range of possible perpetrators – from Islamic State and Marxist radicals to militant nationalists and Kurdish armed factions – highlights fissures running through Turkish society.
Security officials based in the capital told Anadolu Agency that the attack was carried out by two suicide bombers using TNT explosives, with metal balls added to make projectiles.
The newspaper, Yeni Safak, reported Monday that investigators were testing DNA samples obtained from families of a few 20 Turks they believe are IS militants and prepared to carry out suicide bombings.
Though Turkey is a supporter of the rebels in Syria against the President Bashar al-Assad’s government, ISIS has moved on to expand its territory to Turkey as the recent attacks has made clear.
Analysts say Islamic State stands to benefit the most from the continued Turkish-Kurdish conflict, which would take Turkish pressure off the extremist group in Syria.
TURKISH trade unions called a two-day general strike yesterday in protest at Saturday’s Ankara peace-march bombing.
The attack in Ankara occurred just hours before Kurdish rebels declared a unilateral cease-fire which was rejected by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government.
Also on Sunday, pro-Kurdish activists held a similar rally in the German city of Leipzig to show their solidarity with the victims of the Saturday twin bombings in Ankara.
Two Turkish soldiers were also killed in clashes with the PKK in the eastern Erzurum region, reports said.
No group, including the Islamic State group, has yet claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Advertisement
The government meanwhile, raised the death toll in Turkey’s deadliest attack in years to 97 and said the victims included a Palestinian.
