In about face, Turkey admits ‘no clue’ who carried out wedding attack
After pinning blast that killed 54 on teen sent by Islamic State, PM says that information is ‘unfortunately not right’
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey has “no clue” who was behind the attack on a Kurdish wedding in a city close to the Syrian border that left 54 people dead, the prime minister said on Monday.
“We do not have a clue about who the perpetrators behind the attack were. Early information on who did the attack, in what organization’s name, is unfortunately not right,” Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told reporters in Ankara, after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the bomber was a child aged between 12-14 acting on orders of Islamic State (IS) jihadists.
In the wake of the shocking attack, Turkey said earlier Monday that the Syrian border region must be “completely cleansed” from the Islamic State group.
The comments came as Syrian rebel fighters amassed on the Turkish side of the border in preparation for an offensive on the town of Jarablus, IS’s last major transit point on the Syrian side of the border.
“Our border must be completely cleansed from Daesh,” Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in televised remarks, using an Arabic acronym for IS.
“It is our most natural right to fight at home and abroad against such a terrorist organization.”
A child suicide bomber, aged “between 12 and 14,” is suspected of having carried out the attack late Saturday in the southeastern city of Gaziantep near the Syrian border.
Officials at first seemed convinced the attack could be pinned on IS.
Cavusoglu said Turkey has already taken an “active” role in the fight against the group, allowing coalition forces to use a key air base in the country’s south, Incirlik, for strikes on IS forces in Syria.
Quoting security sources, some Turkish media reported earlier that the Gaziantep attack could have been retaliation by IS for an operation carried out by Ankara-backed Syrian rebels against the jihadists in Jarablus, northern Syria.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, “hundreds of rebel fighters are inside Turkish territory, preparing to launch an offensive on Jarablus against IS.”
“There is already daily artillery fire from Turkey on the edges of the town,” said the Britain-based monitoring group’s head, Rami Abdel Rahman.
The Dogan news agency reported that Turkish artillery fired 65 mortar shells at IS targets around Jarablus on Saturday.
On Monday, Turkish armed forces launched new artillery strikes on separate targets of IS jihadists and the Democratic Union Party (PYD) Kurdish militia in northern Syria, television reports said.
Turkish army howitzers stationed inside Turkey fired on IS targets in the town of Jarablus and PYD targets around the area of Manbij, the CNN-Turk and NTV channels reported.
Turkey was deploying tanks and heavy weaponry on the border for the strikes, the reports added.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.