Bombing at Wedding in Turkey Kills at Least 50

NYTimes:

ISTANBUL — The wedding had ended and the guests had started walking home when a suspected suicide bombing tore through the site of the ceremony in southeastern Turkey late Saturday, killing at least 50 people and wounding more than 90, in the latest in a string of attacks to strike the restive region in the past week.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey said in a statement that the Islamic State militant group was probably behind what appeared to be a suicide attack on Saturday in the city of Gaziantep, and that its aim was to sow divisions among ethnic groups in the country and “spread incitement along ethnic and religious lines.”

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

More than 200 people had packed into a narrow street in the district of Sahinbey, close to the Syrian border, for the Kurdish street wedding when the explosion occurred around 11 p.m., witnesses said.

“We had just walked past the wedding and offered our good wishes when we heard the blast,” said Ibrahim Ates, a local man. “Suddenly people started running past us. When we went back to see what had happened, everyone was on the floor, and there were body parts scattered everywhere and blood splattered on the walls.”

Mahmut Togrul, a lawmaker with the Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party who visited the scene of the attack on Sunday, said the wedding had been a traditional Kurdish ceremony and had taken place in a predominantly Kurdish neighborhood.

“Besna and Nurettin Akdogan, the bride and groom, survived the attack and are in stable condition,” Mr. Togrul said. “Many of the victims that died were children,” he added.