IS prime suspect over worst attack-Turkey PM

Turkey’s prime minister said Monday that the Islamic State terror group (ISIS) was suspected of carrying out Saturday’s double suicide bombing at a peace demonstration in Ankara that killed at least 97 people.

Davutoglu declined to identify the organization behind the blasts while the investigation was ongoing but said the focus was on Daesh, who were linked to the Suruc bombing in July that killed 33 pro-Kurdish activists. “That name points to an organisation”, he said. A pro-Kurdish party has said that up to 128 people died.

In Norway, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation Secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg urged Turkey to be “proportionate” in the way it responded to terrorist attacks even though it had suffered from crises in the Middle East more than any other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member.

The German government says Chancellor Angela Merkel will travel to Turkey on Sunday for talks with the country’s leaders on terrorism, Syria and the migrant crisis.

While no one group has been ruled out in the bombings, government opponents blamed security forces for failing to protect the peace rally. “So we are here, shouting them back, telling them people will not be deterred by their bombs”.

Though Turkey is a supporter of the rebels in Syria against the President Bashar al-Assad’s government, ISIS has moved on to expand its territory to Turkey as the recent attacks has made clear.

Kurtulmus called for unity and solidarity in response to these attacks, which he said were aimed to sow discord and create “deep fissures” within Turkey.

It was the deadliest attack in the history of the Turkish republic. On Monday was holding closed door meetings with officials including with spy chief Hakan Fidan, army head Hulusi Akar and Davutoglu.

Indeed, the attack in the heart of the capital – far from the conflicts bleeding over Turkey’s southern borders – is rattling nerves around the nation and beyond. But the party lost its majority in June’s election, in part because the HDP performed well.

As Davutoglu spoke, hundreds of demonstrators condemned the carnage as they marched in Ankara and Istanbul. But there has been no word from the group – usually swift to publicly claim responsibility for any attack it conducts – over the Ankara bombing or two very similar incidents earlier this year.

The Hurriyet daily reported that the authorities had taken DNA samples from families of 16 people suspected of being members of the IS group. The second bomb went off three seconds after the first explosion, Interior Minister Selami Altınok said at a press conference on Saturday. The detentions raised to 45 the number of suspected IS militants taken into custody in four cities since Saturday.

Coming just weeks away from next month’s parliamentary elections, Saturday’s bombings will likely add to a sense of foreboding across a country fearful of more spillover from the war raging in neighboring Syria and the clashes in southeast Turkey between Turkish forces and PKK militants.