By: Dorian Jones
Source: VOA News
ISTANBUL – Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu vowed Monday his country would “completely cleanse” ISIS militants from its border region with Syria in the aftermath of a suicide bombing at a Kurdish wedding that killed at least 54 people.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that rebel fighters were massing inside Turkey to carry out an offensive on the ISIS-held Syrian town of Jarablus. Cavusoglu did not confirm the rebel plans, but said Ankara supports any group fighting ISIS.
Turkish authorities worked to identify the attacker, described by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as between 12 and 14 years old. He blamed ISIS terrorists for the bombing. Officials said they did not know the gender or nationality of the attacker.
Officials said more than half the victims in the attack on Gaziantep were under the age of 18. The city is just 60 kilometers north of Syria and a prominent refugee community for people looking to escape the five-year civil war in Syria.
The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party said that all of the people killed were Kurds.
The Gaziantep attack came amid continuing turmoil in Turkey in the month after Erdogan’s government survived an attempted coup by rogue military officers, which the Turkish leader has blamed on U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen.
In an earlier written statement, Erdogan said there is “no difference” between ISIS, the militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, the PKK, and Gulen’s followers.
“Our country and our nation have again only one message to those who attack us – you will not succeed!” he said.
The White House condemned the Gaziantep attack, saying the “perpetrators of this barbaric act cynically and cowardly targeted a wedding.” The statement Sunday added that Vice President Joe Biden will visit Ankara Wednesday to reaffirm the U.S. commitment to work together with Turkey against the “scourge of terrorism.”
Blast sparks outrage
Witnesses said the blast, the deadliest terror attack in Turkey this year, occurred in a packed street of people dancing and celebrating the marriage.
Speaking Sunday while surveying the wreckage, local resident Ibrahim Ozdemir said people are in shock.
”Our friends and neighbors were there. We are so sad and in pain. The attack is an atrocity.” He said, “We want to end these massacres. We are in pain, especially the women and children.”
The Turkish city is about 90 kilometers from the Syrian city of Manbij. A U.S. backed coalition of Syrian fighters and Kurds earlier this month drove ISIS fighters from that city after a two-month siege, pushing them into the countryside northward toward the Turkish border.
Shortly after Saturday’s bombing, the pro-Kurdish political party HDP condemned the attack, while noting it came just hours after a Kurdish militant organization battling the Ankara government for autonomy announced new plans to try to end the decades-long conflict.
The so-called Group of Communities in Kurdistan, the KCK, which includes the outlawed PKK, said it is ready to resume peace talks with Ankara, but said the government should take the first step. A KCK statement also said those overtures are supported by “friendly” countries and non-government organizations both inside and outside Turkey.
The statement also said the Gaziantep attack “targets those determined and consistent in peace … and those struggling for democracy, equality and freedom.”
The PKK launched an armed rebellion in 1984, seeking an autonomous homeland in a vast area of the southeast bordered by Syria, Iraq and Iran. Nearly 50,000 people have been killed in the fighting.
Last year, the armed wing of the PKK scrapped a three-year cease-fire with Ankara, after Turkish warplanes struck the group’s military training bases in northern Iraq while PKK fighters battled ISIS militants. Ankara also bombed several other PKK bases.
