Turkey identifies suspect in suicide attack on Socialist activists

Suicide bomber was 20-year-old Turkish man with ISIL links

SURUC // Turkey said yesterday that it had identified a suspect over a devastating suicide bombing on its border with Syria blamed on ISIL, as the government rushed to bolster security on the porous frontier.

Thirty-two people were killed and more than 100 wounded on Monday when a bomb ripped through a crowd of young socialist activists in a mainly Kurdish region. The crowd was preparing to take aid over the border into Syria.

The attack in Suruc was one of the deadliest in Turkey in recent years and the first time that the government has directly accused ISIL of carrying out an act of terrorism on Turkish soil.

In harrowing scenes yesterday, loved ones of the dead clutched the coffins of the victims in a farewell ceremony in the nearby city of Gaziantep ahead of their burial in towns across Turkey.

“One suspect has been identified. All the suspect’s links internationally and domestically are being investigated,” prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in the regional centre of Sanliurfa after visiting the wounded in hospital.

“We expect this investigation to be concluded as soon as possible.”

Mr Davutoglu said that 29 injured victims were still in hospital.

There was a “high probability” that the attack was caused by a suicide bomber with con- nections to ISIL militants, he said. The Hurriyet newspaper said that Turkey’s intelligence agency had previously warned the government that seven ISIL members – three of them women – had crossed into the country in recent weeks with the aim of carrying out attacks.

Previous reports had suggested that Monday’s bomber was a woman but the Diha news agency said that the person was a 20-year-old Turkish man who had become involved with ISIL two months ago.

Mr Davutoglu declined to give any further details on the identity, but said that Turkey was taking steps to improve border security, which has long been criticised by its Western partners.

He said that the cabinet would discuss an “action plan” on border security today, and that the government would then take the “necessary measures”.

“Conflicts abroad should not be allowed to spread to Turkey,” he said.

32 killed and more than 100 wounded in bombing