Samil Tayyar, deputy of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), said on twitter that the attack was carried out by Islamic State. The governor of Gaziantep said 22 people are dead and 94 injured in the late night militant attack.
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Southern Turkey has been hit by several deadly blasts over the past year, linked either to Kurdish separatist militants or Islamic State (IS). It was reportedly a Kurdish wedding.
The governor’s office for the province of Gaziantep said 94 people were wounded in Saturday’s attack in the city of Gaziantep.
“The aim of terror is to scare the people but we will not allow this”, said Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek, who also represents Gaziantep in the Turkish parliament, adding that a suicide bombing was the likely cause. Turkey is also in the midst of a massive purge after last month’s failed military coup, which the government is blaming on the Gulenist movement.
The attacks have escalated as the Turkish government, which previously viewed the Syrian government of President Bashar Assad as a bigger threat, has cooperated more with the United States and the West to fight Islamic State forces. The war has risked destabilizing Turkey, a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally that’s experienced a wave of terror attacks this year and whose government resisted an attempted military coup in July.
In the most brazen attack, 44 people were killed in July by suspected IS suicide bombers at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport. It appears to be a suicide attack.
The attack occurred at a wedding in the city of Gaziantep.
In a sign that Turkey’s position was becoming gradually more aligned with Russian Federation and Iran, he added that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could remain temporarily during a transition period.
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Police sealed off the site of the explosion and forensic teams moved in.
