Turkey bombing investigators probe ISIL link

The Islamic State group is the prime suspect in the investigations into the twin bombings that took place in Ankara Saturday and killed more than 125 people, the Turkish prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, said Monday in a televised address. “It was definitely a suicide bombing…DNA tests are being conducted”.

“We are primarily focusing on Islamic State”, Davutoglu said in a live interview with NTV, adding that the attack will not “turn Turkey into Syria”.

A source said the attack had striking similarities to a suicide bombing in July in Suruc near the Syrian border.

The two explosions occurred seconds apart outside Ankara’s main train station as hundreds of activists gathered for rally to call for increased democracy and an end to the renewed violence between Kurdish rebels and Turkish security forces. The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party has challenged the government’s figures of 97 and believe 128 died in the attack.

Turkish police later detained 14 suspected members of the Islamic State group in the central city of Konya.

Protesters have blamed the government for security failures around the rally.

The planes struck Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) targets in northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey, killing a few 30-35 fighters, despite the militant group calling for a ceasefire and ordering its fighters to halt attacks on Turkish soil. An ISIS supporter was blamed for carrying out that attack, but the group never claimed responsibility.

But opponents of President Tayyip Erdogan’s continue to blame the government for the attack, accusing the state of, at best, intelligence failings and at worst complicity by stirring up nationalist, anti-Kurdish sentiment. Across the country, funerals were also held for a few of Saturday’s victims.

Hundreds of people marched through Istanbul and the Turkish capital of Ankara on Monday to condemn the slaughter by suicide bombers at a weekend peace rally, with many venting their anger at the Turkish government itself.

Referring to Daesh, the PKK and leftist group the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), he said: “For us, these three organizations are seen as a potential focus for the crime and right from the start we gave priority to Daesh when looking at the method and general trend”.

As Kurdish politicians tried to lay flowers at the scene of the attack Sunday, there was a confrontation with police, who said investigators were still working at the site.

The South Korean government also stressed that it will actively participate in the global community’s campaigns against terrorism.

Even before the attacks, the president was under enormous political pressure after his Justice and Development Party (AKP) lost its overall majority in June 7 polls for the first time since it came to power in 2002.