Turkey said on Monday Islamic State jihadists must be totally pushed out of the Syrian border region, after a weekend suicide bombing in the city of Gaziantep blamed on the group, left at least 54 dead.
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“Daesh should be completely cleansed from our borders, and we are ready to do what it takes for that”, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said at a news conference in Ankara, using an Arabic name for the group.
Early reports of a child suicide bomber were highly unusual for Turkey, Peter says.
A senior security official told Reuters the suicide vest was similar to those used by the Islamic State in two previous attacks, in July and October of 2015 – the latter being the infamous bombing of a pro-Kurdish rally in Ankara.
Turkey’s prime minister, Binali Yıldırım, has said Ankara will take a more active role in Syria in the next six months to prevent the country from being divided along ethnic lines.
Turkey has linked the bomber to so-called Islamic State (IS), but Mr. Yildirim said: “a clue has not yet been found concerning the perpetrator”.
His comments apparently contradicted those by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who said on Sunday that the bomber was a child aged between 12-14 acting on orders of Islamic State (IS) jihadists.
It was the deadliest in Turkey this year.
An Islamic State child soldier between the ages of 12 and 14 blew himself up at a Kurdish wedding party Saturday, killing 50 people and wounding almost 70.
Al Rai was also used by ISIL as a smaller transit point along the border, but was it seized by rebels on Friday after changing hands several times.
Turkey is becoming ever more embroiled in the Syrian civil war and officials have warned it could be the target of more deadly bombings.
In attacks last week, 11 people were killed and hundreds injured in three bombings targeting security forces in eastern Turkey.
In an earlier written statement, Erdogan said there is “no difference” between Islamic State, the militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, the PKK, and followers of US -based cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom he blames for a coup attempt last month.
Fighting erupted during one of the funerals after some officials arrived with Turkish flags, angering the mostly Kurdish mourners who responded by hurling stones at them.
CNN-Turk and NTV channels later reported that Turkish armed forces launched artillery strikes on separate targets of ISIS jihadists and the Democratic Union Party (PYD) Kurdish militia in northern Syria. Both of those attacks were blamed on Isis.
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A total of 66 wounded are still receiving treatment at hospitals in the province, with 14 in a critical condition.
