MORE than half of the 53 killed were children. The suicide bomber himself was no older than 14. Turkey was already reeling from a brutal attempted coup and an ensuing government crackdown when, on late Saturday, a young suicide bomber melted into a crowd of guests at a wedding ceremony in a largely Kurdish neighbourhood in the southern city of Gaziantep and blew himself up. The Turkish government quickly pinned the blame on Islamic State (IS).
Turkey has endured a rash of IS attacks since 2015, including five this year. Of late, the group has been striking tourist spots and state facilities; its most recent attack, before Saturday, was a triple-suicide bombing at Istanbul’s main airport. But overall, its main targets have been Kurdish. A laptop seized from the house of an IS operative who killed himself during a police raid in Gaziantep earlier this year revealed plans to attack a Kurdish wedding.
As IS loses territory to Kurdish forces and Turkish-backed militants in Syria, it has extended its war into Turkey. The jihadists’ aim, according to government officials and analysts, is to punish the country for its role in the American-led...Continue reading
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