Turkey vows to ‘cleanse’ border of IS after deadly attack
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey vowed Monday to fight Islamic State militants at home and to “cleanse” the group from its borders after a weekend suicide bombing at a Kurdish wedding, an attack that came amid recent gains by Syrian Kurdish militia forces against the extremists in neighbouring Syria.
The bombing Saturday in the southern city of Gaziantep, near the border with Syria, killed at least 54 people — many of them children. Nearly 70 others were wounded in the attack, the deadliest in Turkey this year.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but officials said it appeared to be the work of the Islamic State group. Authorities were trying to identify the attacker, who President Recep Tayyip Erdogan initially said was a child. However, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Monday that it was unclear whether the bomber was “a child or a grown-up.”
“A clue has not yet been found concerning the perpetrator,” Yildirim told reporters following a weekly Cabinet meeting. He said the earlier assertion that the attacker was child was a “guess” based on witness accounts.