Turkey vows to ‘cleanse’ border of IS after deadly attack

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blamed Islamic State for Saturday’s attack on a wedding party that killed no fewer than 50 people in the city of Gaziantep. “ISIS has used child bombers before; there’s a monitoring group in the United Kingdom called the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, and they say ISIS used 18 child bombers in 2015”.

Saturday’s pre-wedding party was for a member of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party, and the groom was among those injured. Islamic State has been blamed for other attacks in Turkey, often targeting Kurdish gatherings in an effort to inflame ethnic tensions.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Gaziantep would show the same spirit it had shown in 1921, when it defeated French forces in Turkey’s Independence War which led to the word Gazi (war hero) being added to its original name of Antep.

“This attack targets those determined and persistent in peace, resolution, and those struggling for democracy, equality, freedom and justice”, the HDP said.

“The explosion was the result of a suicide bomber aged between 12 and 14 who either detonated (the bomb) or others detonated it”, Mr Erdogan said during a press conference from Istanbul.

Emine Ayhan, who lost four of her five children and whose husband was seriously injured, told Turkish television: “If my remaining child was not alive, I would commit suicide”. “Just a regular wedding party”, said Hamdullah Ceyhan.

“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.

He said authorities were still trying to determine whether it was carried out by “a child or a grown-up”.

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

Putin’s telegram said Sunday’s attack was shocking in its “cruelty and cynicism” and once again showed that “terrorism doesn’t recognize not only the laws of civilized society but also the very basic norms of human morality”.

“They tell them if they do this, they will go to heaven and have a good time and get everything that they ever wanted”. “Security operations have been conducted and are still being conducted against the terrorist organization”.

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.

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.

ISIS operatives have struck before in the bustling southern Turkish city of about 1.5 million people, with the group claiming responsibility for the shootings of anti-ISIS activists there in December and April.

In June, 44 people were killed by suspected ISIS suicide bombers at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport. Erdogan issued a statement earlier Sunday saying that ISIS extr.

The deadly attack also came amid ongoing struggles between the government and Kurdish militants linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, known as the PKK, and as the country was still reeling from the aftermath of last month’s failed coup attempt, which the government has blamed on a USA -based Muslim cleric, Fethullah Gulen, and his followers.

Erdogan accuses Gulen of being behind a failed coup attempt last month; Gulen has denied the accusation.

The Turkish government blamed the PKK, which has typically targeted police and the military, whereas ISIS tends to launch mass casualty attacks on soft, civilian targets. A fragile, 2½ year peace process between the PKK and the government collapsed last year, leading to a resumption of the three-decade-long conflict.