Turkey vows to fight IS after attack kills 54, many children

On Monday, Turkey’s military launched howitzer attacks on Islamic State while artillery pounded Kurdish YPG militants in Syria, whom Ankara sees as an extension of its own Kurdish insurgency.

The attack killed 54 people including 22 children, making it the deadliest in Turkey this year.

Child bombers who are coerced often deliberately fail to launch their attacks, as the teen in Kirkuk may have done, she said.

But speaking to reporters in Ankara on Monday Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said it was too early to verify the organisation responsible or whether the attack was carried out by a child.

The group has deployed child suicide bombers to stage attacks in both Iraq and Syria.

“Those who were behind the attack will be revealed, there is no doubt about this”.

A senior security official said the device used was the same type as those employed in the July 2015 suicide attack in the border town of Suruc and the October 2015 suicide bombing of a rally of pro-Kurdish activists in Ankara.

The official said that the presence of Daesh or the Syrian wing of the PKK in the Syrian town on the Turkish border was “unacceptable”.

Without explicitly confirming the rebel offensive, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkey backed anyone fighting against IS and would itself fight the group “to the end”.

However the Turkish bombardment has also struck YPG positions north of Manbij, Turkish TV reported.

A coalition including YPG has been pushing IS out of Syrian towns, including Manbij, recently. The bomb had been timed to detonate during a part of the festivities when women and children painted themselves with henna, authorities told the CNN.

The death toll from Saturday’s attack increased to 54 as three more victims died in hospitals. Television pictures showed fire brigade workers hosing down the area of the attack with water in a clean-up.

Thirteen of those killed were women, Turkish media said. Among the most deadly attacks was a bombing at a youth soccer game at a stadium south of Baghdad on March 25, 2016.

Hurriyet said the type of bomb used – stuffed with 2-3 centimetre shards of iron and detonated with C-4 explosives – was similar to that used in previous suicide bombings against pro-Kurdish gatherings blamed on IS in the border town of Suruc and at Ankara train station past year.

More victims of the blast are being identified and our correspondent says the wave of bombings in Turkey could intensify as the country becomes ever more embroiled in the Syrian war.

The hillside graveyard was pock-marked before the ceremony with the holes of dozens of freshly dug graves for the victims.