Turkey vows to fight IS after attack kills 54, many children
August 22, 2016 19:13
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Monday that his country is determined to fight Islamic State group extremists both inside Turkey and in Syria, after a youth blew himself up at a Kurdish wedding
party, killing at least 54 people, many of them children.
Cavusoglu said Turkey would provide every kind of support that may be necessary to "cleanse" Turkey's border with Syria of the extremists.
The death toll from Saturday's attack increased to 54 on Monday, after three more victims died in hospital, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported. Nearly 70 others were wounded.
An official said at least 22 victims of attack in the southeastern city of Gaziantep, near the border with Syria, were children under the age of 14. The official couldn't be named in line with Turkish government rules.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but officials have said it appears to be the work of the Islamic State group, accusing it of trying to destabilize the country by exploiting ethnic and religious tensions. It was the
deadliest attack in Turkey this year.
Authorities were trying to identify the attacker, who President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said was aged between 12 and 14.
Responding to a question on reports that Turkish-backed Syrian opposition forces may launch an operation to free an IS-held town from Turkish territory, Cavusoglu said: "Our border has to be completely cleansed of Daesh. It's natural for us to give whatever kind of support is necessary," He was using an Arabic name for the IS group.
"(IS) martyred our ... citizens. It is natural for us to struggle against such an organization both inside and outside of Turkey," he said.
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