Death Toll in Ankara Bombings Tops 120

Death Toll in Ankara Bombings Tops 120
Fecha de publicación: 
12 October 2015
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Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu says that DNA tests were underway and that investigators were close to identifying one of the bombers. The Islamic State group is the prime suspect in the investigations into the twin bombings, the Turkish prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, said Monday in a televised address.

"It was definitely a suicide bombing," said Davutoglu, noting that authorities have determined how the suicide bombers got to the area of the explosions. Davutoglu added that the attack, the biggest of its kind in Turkey's history, was meant to influence the country's upcoming parliamentary elections, due November 1st.

No group, including the Islamic State group, has yet claimed responsibility for the attacks. On Sunday, reports in Turkish newspapers said Sunday that the police believed that one of the suicide attackers in Saturday's incident could be the missing brother of the Islamic State group member who blew himself up in the southeastern town of Suruc last July, in an attack that killed 34 people. The police failed to locate the brother, who they believed was also a member of the extremist group.

The two blasts took place at a rally that was organized by pro-democracy and peace activists who were calling on the government to stop its operations against Kurdish rebels, which the government launched in July.

The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) says it was the target of the attack, as many of its members were attending the rally.

Edited by Ivan Martínez

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