Death toll rises to 50 in Turkey wedding attack
 

Gaziantep, Turkey:At least 50 people were killed in a southeastern Turkish city close to Syria when a suspected suicide bomber linked to IS attacked a wedding thronged with guests, officials said Sunday.

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.

The remains of a suicide vest were found at the scene, the chief prosecutor´s ****** said in a statement on Sunday, broadcaster CNN-Turk reported.

The explosion was the latest attack to rock the key NATO member in a horrific year that has seen strikes blamed on Kurdish and Islamist militants as well as a bloody July 15 botched coup.

Gaziantep gover**r Ali Yerlikaya said in a statement that 50 people had been killed, raising a previous toll of 30. He had previously said 94 were wounded in what he described as an "abhorrent terror bomb attack on a wedding".

Erdogan said in a statement there was "** difference" between the group of US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen whom he blames for the failed coup bid, the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) "and Daesh (IS), the likely perpetrator of the attack in Gaziantep".

"Our country and our nation have again only one message to those who attack us -- you will **t succeed!" he said.

World leaders quickly condemned the attack including French President Francois Hollande who de**unced the "vile" incident.

"France stands with all who fight against the scourge of terrorism," the presidency said in a statement.

The US ambassador to Turkey John Bass condemned the "barbaric attack on in**cent civilians", adding that Washington would "continue to work closely together to defeat the common threat of terrorism" in a statement shared on the official US embassy in Turkey Twitter account.


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