Twin bombings investigation focuses on IS

Turkey is focusing efforts on the Islamic State group in investigating a suspected suicide bombing in Ankara that killed up to 128 people, officials said on Sunday.

Two suspected suicide bombers hit a rally of proKurdish and labor activists near the city’s main train station on Saturday, three weeks before elections.

Two senior security sources said initial signs suggested Islamic State was behind the Ankara attack, and that it bore striking similarity to a July suicide bombing in the town of Suruc near the Syrian border, also blamed on the radical Islamists.

“All signs indicate that the attack may have been carried out by ISIL (Islamic State). We are completely focused on ISIL,” one of the sources told Reuters.

Government officials made clear that despite widespread alarm over the attack on a rally of pro-Kurdish activists and civic groups, elections set for Nov 1 would go ahead.

The attack, the deadliest of its kind in Turkey, fueled unease in a country beset by conflict between state forces and Kurdish militants in the southeast.

“We are in mourning for peace,” said a front-page headline in the secularist Cumhuriyet newspaper as three days of national mourning declared by the prime minister began. Other newspapers voiced public anger over the attack.

Scuffles broke out on Sunday in Ankara as police used tear gas to prevent proKurdish politicians and other mourners from laying carnations at the blast site.

There were no claims of responsibility for the attack, which came as external threats mount against NATO member Turkey with increased fighting across its border with Syria and incursions by Russian warplanes in its airspace over the past week.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu’s office named 52 of the victims overnight and said autopsies were continuing.

“The necessary work is being conducted to identify those behind the attack and quickly bring them to justice,” a statement said.

European Commission First Vice-President Frans Timmermans and Commissioner Johannes Hahn postponed a tour to Turkey on Sunday at the request of the Turkish authorities to respect the nation’s three days of mourning.

Several thousand mainly Kurdish demonstrators marched through Paris on Sunday to protest against the Turkish government’s policies.