Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says a child suicide bomber carried out Saturday’s attack on a wedding party in southeast Turkey, killing at least 51 people and wounding scores of others, many of them critically.
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“It could be that someone was loaded with explosives without even being aware of it and it may have been detonated remotely”, the official said, adding a search was underway for suspected militants who may have played a reconnaissance role. A dual suicide bombing blamed on IS at a peace rally in Turkey’s capital, Ankara, in October killed 103 people. It was the deadliest in a string of blasts across Turkey this year.
“It appears to be an act to punish the PYD”, Ozcan said, referring to a Syrian Kurdish group whose militia is fighting IS.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack but ISIS rarely claims attacks in Turkey, which analysts speculate to be because of its use of Turkey as a transit country to get foreign fighters into its self-proclaimed caliphate in Syria.
A senior rebel official said Turkish-backed Syrian rebels were preparing to launch an attack to seize the Syrian town of Jarablus from Islamic State on the border with Turkey, a move that would deny control to advancing Syrian Kurdish fighters.
The death toll rose to 54 after three of those in the most critical condition died in hospital later, the Dogan news agency reported.
“Those who can not overcome Turkey and try to provoke people by abusing ethnic and sectarian sensitiveness will not prevail”, declared Erdogan, taking the opportunity to reiterate his stance that ISIS, the Kurdish separatists of the PKK, and the followers of exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen – whom Erdogan blames for last month’s failed effort to depose him – are equal threats to his nation’s security.
The global reaction to the deadliest bombing in Turkey this year has been condemned as “hypocritical” in comparison to the outcry in response to the Paris and Brussels attacks.
The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) said the wedding party was for one of its members, with the groom injured and more than 60 guests remaining in hospital.
The aim of the strikes, according to one Turkish official, “is to open a corridor for moderate rebels”.
Among the guests at the wedding was Nursel Saglam, who was on a rooftop overlooking the outdoor celebrations.
Meanwhile, Turkish officials said that they found a destroyed suicide vest at the bombing site.
ISIS has lured children “through a variety of tricks and treats, the way pedophiles lure in young kids”, she said.
“I can’t forget that moment”, she said, adding that she hasn’t been able to return to her house near the scene of the attack and was staying with her sister.
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Halil Ilter said he was at home when he heard the blast and rushed to the scene to check on his relatives. “There is nothing to say, it was murder”. They were aged 13, 14.
