Islamic State: Gazan suicide bomber targeted Turkish troops

Jihadist group names Palestinian ‘Abu Osama’ as attacker who killed 14 in Syria attack

By Dov Lieber 22 December 2016, 1:13 pm 0 Edit

Dov Lieber is The Times of Israel's Arab affairs correspondent.

Turkish soldiers fire an upgraded M60 tank during fighting alongside members of the Free Syrian Army against IS jihadists near the northern Syrian village of Beraan on October 24, 2016. (AFP/Nazeer al-Khatib)

The Islamic State group said Thursday that a man from Gaza was responsible for a deadly suicide attack against Turkish soldiers the day before in northern Syria.

An IS press release identified the man only as the Gazan “Abu Osama.”

A total of 14 Turkish soldiers were killed and 33 wounded in the attack.

It came as the military was backing Syrian rebels seeking to take the town of al-Bab from extremists, the Turkish army said.

IS released an image of the alleged suicide bomber through its media.

https://twitter.com/MOH7185/status/811862843045924864

The Gaza Strip, a Palestinian coastal enclave bordering Israel and Egypt, is controlled by the Hamas terror group.

The death toll, the heaviest single day loss for the Turkish army in its Syria operation that started in August, came in fighting with jihadists that included three suicide car bomb attacks, the army added in a statement quoted by Turkish media.

The IS-held town of al-bab, 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the Turkish border, has become the main target of the army’s three-month campaign inside Syria in support of pro-Ankara Syrian rebels.