(Adds deputy pm)
ISTANBUL, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Eight people were killed and 60
were wounded on Saturday in an attack on a wedding party in
southern Turkey that a deputy prime minister said appeared to
have been carried out by a suicide bomber.
Ambulances raced to the scene of the attack in the Sahinbey
district of the city of Gaziantep and police sealed off the
area.
A parliamentary deputy from the ruling AK Party said in a
twitter message that Islamic State militants were believed to be
behind the attack. There was no immediate claim of
responsibility.
NATO member Turkey has suffered a string of attacks this
year by Islamic State fighters, who pass relatively easily
across the border from neighbouring Syria, and by Kurdish
militants seeking autonomy or independence.
Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek said Saturday's attack
was probably carried out by a suicide bomber.
Last month, the country was shaken by an attempted coup by
rogue elements of the military. Thousands have since been
arrested or sacked in the military, police, civil service,
judiciary and academia in a crackdown on what President Tayyip
Erdogan calls a vast terrorist conspiracy.
Over 200 people were killed and the failed putsch that
Erdogan says was engineered by a former ally, exiled islamic
cleric Fethullah Gulen.
Bombings have torn at the fabric of Turkey which is seen by
Western allies as an important ally and buffer against
instability in Syria and Iraq.
Three suspected Islamic State suicide bombers killed 44
people at Istanbul's main airport in July, the deadliest in a
string of attacks in Turkey this year. Almost 40 people were
killed in a suicide bomb attack in Ankara in March that was
claimed by a Kurdish group.
(Reporting by David Dolan; editing by Ralph Boulton; editing by
John Stonestreet)
© 2025 Thomson/Reuters. All rights reserved.