Most of the victims of the bombing of a Kurdish wedding party in the Turkish city of Gaziantep on Saturday were children, media reports have said.
Twenty-nine victims were under the age of 18, reports said, with one official saying 22 were under the age of 14. The death toll rose to 54 yesterday.
The suicide bomber himself was a child aged between 12 and 14, President Recep Tayyip
One woman lost four children in the attack, Emine Arhan, said yesterday: “If it wasn’t for my only surviving child, I would have killed myself.”
Another victim was a nine-year-old girl who had stayed on at the party to see the bride after her parents had left, according to reports.
A disproportionately large number of women and children were killed in the attack because it targeted henna night, a part of the celebration attended mainly by women and children.
Turkish officials said the type of bomb used, which contained scraps of metal, was similar to those used in previous attacks on pro-Kurdish gatherings.
Kurdish fighters, backed by the US-led coalition, have been at the forefront of the fight against ISIS in Syria.
There were emotional scenes as dozens of funerals for victims took place on Sunday. Some distraught relatives threw themselves on to the coffins.
The explosion happened as wedding guests danced in the street on Saturday evening in a predominantly Kurdish district of Gaziantep.
The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), said the wedding had been for one of its members.
The bride and bridegroom, from the mainly Kurdish region of Siirt in the south-east, survived the blast but were among the injured.
Twenty-nine victims were under the age of 18, reports said, with one official saying 22 were under the age of 14. The death toll rose to 54 yesterday.
The suicide bomber himself was a child aged between 12 and 14, President Recep Tayyip
One woman lost four children in the attack, Emine Arhan, said yesterday: “If it wasn’t for my only surviving child, I would have killed myself.”
Another victim was a nine-year-old girl who had stayed on at the party to see the bride after her parents had left, according to reports.
A disproportionately large number of women and children were killed in the attack because it targeted henna night, a part of the celebration attended mainly by women and children.
Turkish officials said the type of bomb used, which contained scraps of metal, was similar to those used in previous attacks on pro-Kurdish gatherings.
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| Rlatives bearing the corpse of a victim |
Kurdish fighters, backed by the US-led coalition, have been at the forefront of the fight against ISIS in Syria.
There were emotional scenes as dozens of funerals for victims took place on Sunday. Some distraught relatives threw themselves on to the coffins.
The explosion happened as wedding guests danced in the street on Saturday evening in a predominantly Kurdish district of Gaziantep.
The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), said the wedding had been for one of its members.
The bride and bridegroom, from the mainly Kurdish region of Siirt in the south-east, survived the blast but were among the injured.
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