begin quote from:
| Wall Street Journal | - |
ISTANBUL—A
young suicide bomber attacked a crowded outdoor wedding in southeastern
Turkey's largest city, killing at least 51 people and wounding scores,
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday, in a further sign of how the
war in neighboring ...
Child Suicide Bomber Hits Wedding in Southern Turkey, Killing Dozens
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says attack was likely carried out by Islamic State
ENLARGE
A person shows pieces
of projectile on Sunday near the explosion scene following a late night
attack on a wedding party in Gaziantep, Turkey, that left dozens dead.
Photo:
ILYAS AKENGIN/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Mr. Erdogan said the Saturday night attack, which also injured nearly 100 people, had the hallmarks of Islamic State, which his nation has been battling as part of an international coalition. He said the suicide bomber was between the ages of 12 and 14.
“No one should doubt, the blood spilled by our martyred brothers will not be forgotten,” he said.
The attack in the southeastern city of Gaziantep targeted the wedding of a Kurdish family. Kurds in Syria, who are ethnically related to their kin in Turkey, have been among the most active groups fighting Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.
Islamic State has previously carried out attacks on Kurds in Turkey, the most deadly of which killed more than 100 people during a rally in Ankara last year.
The extremist group has also hit Turkey’s urban centers this year. One of the most devastating bombings occurred at Istanbul’s Atatürk International Airport in late June, killing 45 people and wounding more than 230. The government identified the bombers as Islamic State sympathizers from Russia and Central Asia.
Saturday night’s attack shattered what had been a joyous summer evening in Gaziantep, which borders Syria and is located approximately 75 miles from the war-torn city of Aleppo.
ENLARGE
Relatives of victims who were killed in the attack in Gaziantep mourn on Sunday.
Photo:
European Pressphoto Agency
Both survived the attack. The bride, Besna, was injured but was discharged from the hospital on Sunday, state news agency Anadolu reported.
The local prosecutor’s office said a vest that could have been used by the suicide bomber had been found at the scene of the explosion, Turkish media reported. The prosecutor’s office didn’t answer telephone calls.
Islamic State operatives have long used Gaziantep to hunt Syrian opposition figures and journalists who fled the fighting in their homeland and gained refugee status in Turkey. In April, Islamic State claimed responsibility for an attack in which one of its operatives shot a Syrian opposition journalist in the head while he was walking in an outdoor market in the Turkish city. Another Syrian journalist was assassinated there in December.
Since Turkey joined the coalition against Islamic State in August 2015, the terror group has targeted its citizens in several major attacks. The group has branded Turkey an infidel Muslim nation and hostile regime.
Islamic State's focus on Kurdish citizens here has soured the already checkered relationship between Turkey’s major opposition party, the People’s Democratic Party, or HDP, and the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP. The HDP, which represents a significant number of the minority Kurdish population, has accused the government of playing down the threat from Islamic State to its constituents, who largely live in the southeastern areas near the Syrian border where Islamic State cells operate.
The government denies those allegations and says it is committed to keeping all of is citizens safe from terror. During the first five months of 2016, 989 individuals in Turkey were detained on suspicion of having links to Islamic State, according to government statistics. A total of 228 of those remain behind bars. The numbers weren’t broken down by national origin of the detainees.
Western allies also complain that Turkey isn’t using its limited security and intelligence resources in the most effective way to battle Islamic State. Turkey says that it has three urgent counterterrorism priorities: Islamic State, Kurdish militants, and sympathizers with Fethullah Gulen, the U.S.-based Turkish religious leader that the government accuses of July’s failed coup.
The attack sparked an outpouring of sympathy in Europe, where ties with Ankara have fallen to a recent low after Turkish officials criticized what they call a lack of empathy from Brussels over the failed coup attempt last month.
“As European Union, we express our solidarity and sympathy with the government and people of Gaziantep and of all Turkey. And we will continue to strengthen our cooperation with the Turkish authorities to prevent and counter terrorism,” EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and the bloc’s neighborhood policy commissioner, Johannes Hahn, said in a joint statement.
French President François Hollande, whose country was also the subject of several terror attacks over the past year, wrote on his Twitter page that he “strongly denounces the ignoble attack in Gaziantep,” and that France is extending condolences to the Turkish people.
Russia’s Vladimir Putin also expressed his condolences to Mr. Erdogan, in a move likely to help consolidate improving ties between Ankara and Moscow. Relations between the countries had been strained since last November when Turkish jet fighters downed a Russian warplane last year near the border.
The pro-Kurdish HDP condemned the attacks and said the wedding was for one of its members.
It is unclear how the attacker penetrated the event. Witnesses told Turkish television that the explosion was loud enough to be heard several neighborhoods away from the celebration.
Local police declined to comment.
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek flew to Gaziantep, the city he represents in parliament, immediately after the attack to coordinate the government’s response.
“We are strong. We are fighting hard against all terrorist organizations and with Allah’s permission, Turkey will come out on top,” he said in comments to state news agency Anadolu.
—Valentina Pop in Brussels contributed to this article.
Write to Margaret Coker at margaret.coker@wsj.com and Thomas Grove at thomas.grove@wsj.com 
