Child bomber in Turkey not the only violent use of children

The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) said the wedding party was for one of its members. “If my remaining child was not alive, I would commit suicide”, she said.

The choice of target seems designed for maximum effect: those enjoying a moment of a celebration at a wedding party.

The president said the Islamic State was the “likely perpetrator” of the bomb attack, the deadliest in 2016, that targeted a celebration attended by many Kurds.The remains of a suicide vest were found at the scene, the chief prosecutor’s office said on Sunday, according to the broadcaster CNN-Turk. One participant, shop owner Ercan Yilmaz, 36, told the AP it was “always those kinds of people being targeted – a Kurdish wedding party, opposition groups or people calling for peace in Ankara”, referring to the peace rally attacked in October.

“The aim of terror is to scare the people but we will not allow this”, he said, adding that a suicide bombing was the likely cause.

“Initial information suggests it is Daesh (an Arabic acronym which is used for the group) who did this”, Gaziantep MP for the AKP, Samil Tayyar, was reported as saying by Dogan news agency.

The White House and the State Department quickly condemned the attack and expressed solidarity with Turkey and the victims.

Gaziantep, where the latest attack occurred, is less than an hour’s drive to the Syrian border and has been a main hub for jihadists entering Syria and for logistical support.

“We couldn’t see anything. Nothing but body parts”, Sukru Akdogan, the groom’s brother, was quoted by Anadolu as saying. “If my neighbour hadn’t fallen on top of me, I would have died”, she said.

The wedding had ended and the guests had started walking home when the suspected suicide bomber ripped through the site of the ceremony.

At the same time, the attack sends a signal to Turkey in general that ISIS is capable of striking against civilians, Peter says.

Kurdish militia have played a central role in recent battlefield victories against ISIS in northern Syria, including driving the group from the key city of Manbij earlier this month and cutting a key supply route from the Turkish border to its heartland in Raqqa.

Nearly 40 people were killed in a suicide bomb attack in Ankara in March that was claimed by a Kurdish separatist group. “And we know very well from the Afghanistan experience to what extent attacks on weddings can disrupt order in a society”, he said.

Distraught to revisit the scene of so much bloodshed, the couple were rushed back to the hospital for treatment, with the overwhelmed bride carried into the ward by her husband and a relative.

The leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, used teenagers as suicide bombers to fight the American occupation in Iraq before he was killed in a US airstrike in 2006.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the Gaziantep blast.

Meantime, there have also been ongoing attacks claimed by the PKK or linked to the militant group, as well as the coup attempt blamed on Gulen’s movement.

Last March, two suicide bombers killed at least 40 people in Ankara.

In a written statement published in Turkish media, Erdogan said there was “no difference” between IS, the Kurdish militants of the PKK, and followers of United States-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom he blamed for the coup attempt last month. IS was blamed for a series of suicide bombings of Kurdish targets, including the country’s worst terror attack in the capital, Ankara, in October in which almost 100 people died while attending a pro Kurdish rally.

Since then, Anadolu reports, hundreds of Turkish security forces and about 5,000 PKK members have been killed in the conflict.