Turkey: Over 51 Killed In Bomb Attack

Last weekend’s bomb attack  in Gaziantep was the sixth in the country since January 2016.

Turkey on Saturday, August 20, 2016 witnessed its sixth bomb attack since the beginning of the year. The bomb blast at an outdoor wedding party in the south Turkish city of Gaziantep killed at least 51 people and injured 94 more, BBC reported citing authorities.

Reacting to the bomb attack, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said so-called Islamic State (IS) was likely to have carried it out amid reports of a suicide bomber targeting the party. BBC cited Mr Erdogan as saying that the attack was carried out by a 12 to 14-year-old person. In a written statement published in  local media  he argued there was "no difference" between IS, the Kurdish militants of the PKK, and followers of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom he blames for the coup attempt last month, BBC reported. He is quoted to have added that, "Our country and our nation have again only one message to those who attack us - you will not succeed!"

A chronology of bomb attacks in Turkey indicate an upsurge since the beginning of this year. On January 12, 2016, 10 people, including at least eight German tourists died in a suicide bombing in Istanbul, thought to have been carried out by IS.  On February 17, 2016, over 28 people were killed in an attack on a military convoy in the capital Ankara. A month after on March 13, some 37 people were killed by Kurdish militants in a suicide car bombing in Ankara. On June 29, a gun and bomb attack on Ataturk Airport in Istanbul killed 41 people. Finally on July 30, some 35 Kurdish fighters who tried to storm a military base were killed by the Turkish army.