ISIL sought second attack after wedding bombing in southeast Turkey: Governor

GAZİANTEP

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) sought to commit another attack after a suicide bombing a street wedding in the southeastern province of Gaziantep, the local governor’s office has said, adding that the bomber was a 22- or 23-year-old Turkish-speaking male.

“Find us a new Kurdish wedding,” said the ISIL militant who ordered the first attack, Mehmet Kadir Cebael, while praising the suicide attack on the wedding of Besna and Nurettin Akdoğan on Aug. 20, which claimed the lives of 56 people, most of whom were children, while wounding 94 others. 

Cebael, who was ISIL’s “emir,” was killed on Oct. 16 during a police raid on an ISIL cell house. He was shot by police before he detonated explosives in the apartment. 

After the wedding attack, the police detained a total of 39 people in a series of operations, allowing investigators to acquire new information about ISIL’s plans. 

The governor’s office said the “long haired, bearded” attacker was incited by Cebael for a month during his stay in the emir’s house.

“The one that will carry out the attack is becoming impatient. He could give up. Find a place and we will attack,” Cebael told ISIL militants, according to the statement. 

A militant named Ahmet gave the attacker the suicide vest on the day of the attack and told him to “lift his arms up before detonating the bomb so that the explosion is more effective,” the statement also said. The governor’s office added that Cebael informed ISIL militants in Syria after the attacker boarded a taxi to head to the site of the wedding.

“When talking to each other, Mehmet Kadir Cebael and [another suspect] M.Ş.E. said there were a lot of deaths [in the wedding attack],” read the statement.