IS attack kills 30 at Turkey wedding
ANKARA (AFP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday said the Islamic State (IS) group was the “likely perpetrator” of a bomb attack on a wedding in the city of Gaziantep near the Syrian border that left at least 30 dead.
The explosion — which officials said could have been triggered by a suicide bomber — was the latest attack to have rocked the key NATO member in a horrific year that has seen strikes blamed on Kurdish and Islamist militants as well as a bloody July 15 botched coup.
Gaziantep Gov. Ali Yerlikaya said in a statement that 30 people had been killed and 94 wounded in “an abhorrent terror bomb attack on a wedding” late on Saturday night.
Erdogan said in a statement that there was “no difference” between the group of US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen who he blames for the failed coup bid, the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) “and Daesh (IS), the likely perpetrator of the attack in Gaziantep.”
“Our country and our nation have again only one message to those who attack us — you will not succeed!” he said.
Reports said the wedding had a strong Kurdish presence. The Dogan news agency said the bride and groom were from the mainly Kurdish region of Siirt further to the east and themselves been uprooted due to the flare- up in violence with Kurdish militants.
The pro- Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party said its members had been present at the wedding which was also attended by many women and children.
Erdogan said that the aim of attacks like Gaziantep was to sow division between different groups in Turkey such as Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen and “spread incitement along ethnic and religious lines.”
Many jihadists see Kurds as one of their main enemies, with Kurdish militias playing a significant role in the fight against IS on the ground in Syria.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Gaziantep would show the same spirit of its defeat in 1921 of French forces in Turkey’s Independence War which led to the word Gazi (war hero) being added to its original name of Antep.