People in the street after an explosion in Gaziantep, southeastern Turkey, early Sunday.
NKARA/ISTANBUL — Fifty-one people are dead and 69 injured after a child suicide bomber detonated at a wedding in southeastern Turkey on Saturday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. Mr. Erdogan said the so-called Islamic State (IS) was..
behind the attack, which targeted a Kurdish wedding party. Gaziantep, near the Syrian border, is known to have several IS cells. The bomb wounded 69 people, Mr. Erdogan added 17 of them seriously. The bomber targeted the wedding guests as they danced in the street. A suicide bomber believed to have links to IS killed two policemen in Gaziantep in May.
Erdogan said the bomber at the wedding in the city of Gaziantep, near the border with Syria, was aged between 12 and 14. He said seventeen of the injured were "heavily" wounded.
Erdogan issued a statement earlier Sunday saying that ISIS extremists were "the most likely perpetrator."
Photos taken after the explosion showed several bodies covered with white sheets as a crowd gathered nearby. Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek said the attack "was a massacre of unprecedented cruelty and barbarism." Prime Minister Binali Yildirim condemned the bombing, which he said turned "a wedding party into a place of mourning." He vowed to prevail over the "devilish" attacks.
The explosion occurred after a traditional "henna party," when wedding guests had their hands and feet painted. The celebrations were coming to an end and there was a big explosion among people dancing, there were blood and body parts everywhere.
In a statement, White House National Security Council spokesman Ned Price condemned the attack, saying the U.S. "stand[s] with the people of Turkey as they defend their democracy in the face of all forms of terrorism." The statement added that Vice President Joe Biden planned to visit the country's capital, Ankara, on Wednesday, to "reaffirm" the U.S.-Turkey commitment "to confront the scourge of terrorism."
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