ISIS prime suspected in Turkey bombings, says Prime Minister

The 24-year-old was killed early this month during clashes between Turkish security forces and the youth wing of the militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Kurdish forces have been battling ISIS jihadists across a swath of northern Iraq and Syria, and the Turkish government recently changed its stance to allow the United States to launch strikes on the militant group’s positions from Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey.

On Monday, Yeni Safak, a newspaper close to the government, said authorities investigating the bombings were focusing on the Islamic State group, comparing DNA samples of the suspected bombers with those obtained from families of a few 20 extremists they suspect could have carried out the attacks.

The Ankara death toll surpasses that of the May 2013 twin bombings in Reyhanli on the Syrian border that killed over 50 people, making the attack the deadliest in the history of the Turkish Republic.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hopes to regain AKP’s overall majority after the November vote.

While underlining its firm and consistent principle that terrorism can not be justified for any reason, the government pledged to support the Turkish government’s efforts to root out terrorism.

In an interview with private broadcaster NTV, Davutoglu said: “We are close to a name, which points to an organization”.

The Ankara attack revived memories of a similar bombing of a pro-Kurdish rally in the southeastern town of Diyarbakir and another in Suruc in July that killed at least 30 and was also attributed to the group calling itself Islamic State.

Davutoglu criticized comments made by Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu’s after a meeting between the pair on Sunday in which Kilicdaroglu revealed the content of their discussion.

“Looking at how the incident took place, we are probing Daesh as our first priority”, Davutoglu said, using an alternative Arabic acronym for ISIS. A senior government official told Reuters that “postponing the elections as a result of the attack is not on the table at all, even as an option”.

The PKK on Saturday unexpectedly announced it would suspend all attacks – except in self defence – ahead of the polls.

“Thief, Murderer Erdogan” chanted mourners at one funeral in Istanbul, waving flags from the People’s Democratic Party, or HDP, a left-leaning, pro-Kurdish party that claims it was the target of the bombings.