“They turned our wedding into a bloodbath,” said bride Besna Akdogan on Sunday as she left hospital after a suicide bombing killed 51 people at her wedding in southeastern Turkey.The funerals of some of the victims took place, meanwhile, with feelings running high in the town of Gaziantep near the Syrian border where hundreds gathered following Saturday’s bombing.Shouts of “shame on you, Erdogan” rang out as others threw water bottles at police, amid anger at the president for not doing moreto prevent the attack on a Kurdish wedding which the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) said the Islamic State group had threatened to carry out.A lawmaker from President Recep Erdogan’s Ruling Justice and Development Party for Gaziantep had hoped to attend the funerals but pulled out when the extent of the anger became clear.“I lost my children, now I will never see them again,” wailed one woman confronted with the sight of rows of freshly dug graves.Erdogan said earlier that the attack— the deadliest in 2016 — had involved a child aged between 12 and 14, adding that IS was the likely perpetrator of the bombing on a wedding that had many Kurdish guests.– Suicide vest –People react as they standaround coffins during a funeral for victims of last night’s attack on a wedding party that left 50 dead in Gaziantep in southeastern Turkey near the Syrian border on August 21, 2016.At least 50 people were killed when a suspected suicide bomber linked to Islamic State jihadists attacked a wedding thronged with guests, officials said on August 21. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the IS extremist group was the “likely perpetrator” of the bomb attack, the deadliest in 2016, in Gaziantep late Saturday that targeted a celebration attended by many Kurds. AFP PHOTOWith 69 people still in hospital, 17 in a critical condition, the HDP saidwarnings about IS’s growing foothold in Gaziantep had fallen ondeaf ears. IS see Kurds as enemies due to the prominent role of Kurdish militias in fighting the jihadists.“Over the years, step by step, Gaziantep became a host for IS. For a long time, people who lived in the province said IS was building up a presence,” it said in astatement.After twin suicide bombings targeting a pro-Kurdish peace rally in Ankara in October 2015 killed 103 people, IS had warned it wouldattack a Kurdish wedding, it added.“Unfortunately, the political powersdid not take the necessary steps toprevent these plans despite warnings,” it said.The remains of a suicide vest werefound at the scene on Sunday, according to the chief prosecutor’soffice.An AFP photographer who visited the scene found body parts still strewn across the ground along with victims’ belongings.In a room of a house near to wherethe bomber struck, debris could beseen everywhere with windows flung open and walls pockmarked with bomb damage.At local hospitals, relatives of the injured gathered to await news of their loved ones.Some fainted in the heat as they struggled to comprehend the scaleof the loss of life.The bombing is the seventh major attack in Turkey this year blamed on either IS or The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), a radical offshoot of the rebel Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
