A bomber targeted a wedding guests as they danced in the street, last night in Gaziantep, Turkey. The bomb wounded 69 people, Mr Erdogan added, 17 of them seriously. Mr Erdogan said the so-called Islamic State (IS) was behind the attack, which targeted a Kurdish wedding party. Gaziantep, near the Syrian border, is known to have several IS cells. He added that the bomb was carried out by a 12 to 14-year-old child. IS is known to have operatives in Gaziantep.

Turkey has been hit by a series of bombs both by IS and Kurdish militants in the past year. The last IS attack, on Istanbul airport in June, killed more than 40 people. The jihadists have recently lost ground in northern Syria, including a former stronghold, Manbij. Syrian rebel soldiers are preparing to advance further into the IS-held province of Jarablus.

If this bomb was the work of IS, there will be speculation it was a revenge attack, intended as a show of strength by a group on the defensive. The bomb went off in a part of town popular with students and which has a large Kurdish community. Local MP Mahmut Togrul told the Reuters news agency it had been a Kurdish wedding. Mr Togrul's party, the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), said the wedding had been for one of its members.

According to a report (in Turkish) by Turkey's Dogan news agency, the couple had moved to Gaziantep from the Kurdish town of Siirt further east to escape fighting between Kurdish rebels and security forces. On Sunday morning, smashed garage doors and windows could be seen at the site of the blast, Reuters reports. "The celebrations were coming to an end and there was a big explosion among people dancing," said Veli Can, 25. "There was blood and body parts everywhere." On Saturday, Turkey's government said the country would take a more active role in efforts to end the war in Syria.

Read more (Reuters) >>
Read more (CNN) >>
Read more (Independent) >>