At least 51 people were killed and over 94 injured when a child suicide
bomber aged between 12 and 14 attacked a wedding party in the Turkish
city of Gaziantep late on Saturday, August 20.
The attack was the deadliest in a series of bombings in Turkey this
year. President Tayyip Erdogan described the attack as an attempt by
Islamic State extremists to destabilize the country by exploiting ethnic
and religious tensions.
"Initial evidence suggests it was a Daesh attack," Erdogan said in
Istanbul on Sunday, using an Arabic name for the hardline Sunni Islamist
group. He said 69 people were in hospital and 17 were "heavily
injured".
Islamic State has been blamed for other similar attacks in Turkey, often
targeting Kurdish gatherings in an effort to inflame ethnic tensions.
The deadliest was last October, when suicide bombers killed more than
100 people at a rally of pro-Kurdish and labour activists in Ankara.
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