Yesterday we reported on the attack in Turkey from a suicide bomber, and there are many more details coming out. Initially the death toll was reported at 23, but we now know it’s risen above 50. ISIS is being blamed, and Erdogan says that they employed a child bomber in the heinous attack.
BREAKING: Turkey's president: Suicide bomber in wedding party attack was between 12 and 14 years old.
— The Associated Press (@AP) August 21, 2016
A child suicide bomber killed at least 51 people and wounded nearly 70 others at a Kurdish wedding party near Turkey’s border with Syria, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday, decrying the attack as an attempt by Islamic State extremists to destabilize the nation by exploiting ethnic and religious tensions.
The bombing late Saturday in Gaziantep was the deadliest attack in Turkey this year.
It comes amid ongoing struggles between the government and Kurdish militants linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, known as the PKK, and as the country is still reeling from the aftermath of last month’s failed coup attempt, which the government has blamed on U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen and his followers.
Erdogan said immediately after the Gaziantep attack, which he blamed on IS, that any strategy “meant to incite the citizens against each other along ethnic and religious lines will not work.”
BREAKING: Death toll in Turkey wedding party attack rises to 50, state-run news agency reports.
— The Associated Press (@AP) August 21, 2016
Unfortunately for the people of Turkey, they can expect a lot more of these ISIS attacks since Erdogan has now allied himself with his former rival Putin. ISIS hates the Russians, who want to keep their ally Assad in power. Turkey makes an easy target as ISIS becomes more and more desperate and their region of control shrinks.
You can read our previous reporting with many videos from social media here.