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.
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Meanwhile, three more people receiving treatment at hospitals after the attack in Gaziantep succumbed to their wounds in the early hours of Monday. The groom was injured, while the bride was left unhurt.
An additional 66 people were injured in the Saturday night attack, including 14 who remain in critical condition. Witnesses to the blast described horrific scenes to Anadolu, with one telling the agency that body parts were strewn across the bomb site.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, hundreds of rebel fighters were preparing inside Turkish territory to launch an offensive on the IS-held Syrian town of Jarablus. There have been reports of cases in Nigeria and Afghanistan as well.
This was the deadliest suicide attack in Turkey this year. The country has suffered attacks on transportation hubs, police stations and tourist destinations.
The attack followed a string of strikes blamed on ISIS and Kurdish militants in the last months but was the deadliest so far this year and first significant jihadist action in Turkey since the failed July 15 coup. Many in Turkey feel the government has not done enough to protect its citizens from the Islamic State.
But in a statement condemning the attack, Erdogan identified ISIS as the likely perpetrator.
A senior security official told Reuters the device used was the same type as those employed in the July 2015 suicide attack in the border town of Suruc and the October 2015 suicide bombing of a rally of pro-Kurdish activists in Ankara.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but officials have said it appeared to be the work of the Islamic State group, accusing it of trying to destabilize the country by exploiting ethnic and religious tensions.
An ISIS attack on Kurds in Turkey might be motivated by events in Syria, Peter reports. “So some are saying this could be revenge taken against Kurdish civilians – who have nothing to do with it, obviously – inside Turkey for Kurdish battlefield gains in Syria”.
Meanwhile Selahattin Demirtas of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) visited families of some of the victims.
Earlier this month, a Syrian rebel offensive carried out largely by Syrian Kurdish groups and backed by USA special operations forces routed Islamic State positions in the Syrian city of Manbij, cutting the terror group’s last major road link to Turkey, which it had used to shuttle foreign fighters and supplies to its so-called caliphate.
The White House and the State Department quickly condemned the attack and expressed solidarity with Turkey and the victims.
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The terror group has been blamed for a series of bomb attacks throughout Turkey, which allows planes from the US-led anti-ISIS coalition to operate from its air base at Incirlik.
