GAZIANTEP, Turkey, Aug. 20 (UPI) — At least eight people were killed and many others were injured Saturday in an attack on a wedding party attended by hundreds in Turkey, officials said.
Police said an explosion, possibly a suicide bomber, targeted the outdoor nuptials in Gaziantep province — located near the border with Syria in southern Turkey.
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Şimşek said the death toll might be higher than initially reported, The Daily Sabah reported.
“There are people who lost their lives and we have initial information suggesting it was a bomb attack,” Mehmet Erdogan, of Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), said.
An AKP deputy, Şamil Tayyar, said the Islamic State was behind Saturday’s attack.
Authorities, though, are looking into the possibility that the wedding attack might have been orchestrated by Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants, due to the fact that the bombing occurred exactly four years to the day after a different strike by the left-wing group killed 10 in 2012.
Police say the PKK was responsible for three attacks in Turkey earlier this week that killed several people and wounded more than 200.
Southern Turkey has been targeted by several militant attacks over the past year, much of them related to the ongoing hostilities in neighboring Syria — particularly Aleppo.
