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We Must Destroy ISIS Before They Destroy Us
- A suicide bomber has killed at least 10 foreigners and wounded several others in a prominent tourist location in Turkey.
- Although not confirmed, Turkish officials blame ISIS for the attack.
- ISIS has been targeting Turkey for its involvement with NATO and it cooperation with the United States.
- Turkey vows, “We will never compromise, even one single inch.”
Istanbul (CNN) The suicide bomber who killed at least 10 foreigners Tuesday in a popular central Istanbul tourist area belonged to ISIS, officials said — an attack that shows the group's nerve, reach and capacity for terror.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan initially said the attacker had Syrian roots. A short time later, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu went one step further, saying the man responsible for the blast came from outside Turkey and was a member of ISIS, the terror menace that has entrenched itself in neighboring Syria and Iraq while proving willing time and again to lash out worldwide.
“These terrorists (are) targeting the whole of civilization,” Davutoglu said.
At least nine German nationals died in the attack between the Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque tourist attractions in Istanbul's cultural and historic heart, said a Turkish official who declined to be named. Davutoglu indicated that the 15 wounded were from inside and outside his country.
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Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said the bomber was born in 1988. He was not among the thousands being tracked by Turkish authorities, having “newly (come) into Turkey from Syria,” added Kurtulmus.
No group immediately claimed responsibility.
Just to Turkey's south, Syria has been embroiled in a civil war for nearly five years — a conflict that, according to the United Nations, has cost more than 250,000 lives, spurred more than half the country's 17 million residents to flee and caused humanitarian crises for those left behind, as illustrated by the hundreds starving in the siege of Madaya.
This violence can be pinned on many groups, including forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Yet ISIS has been behind many of the worst atrocities there and elsewhere in the region, a fact that's made the terror group a top target for civilized countries.
A member of NATO, Turkey has increasingly been engaged in this fight — including allowing the United States to launch strikes from Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey and clamping down to curb more fighters from going through its territory to join the group. ISIS has responded by singling out Turkey as a primary target, and a recent issue of its Dabiq magazine had a cover showing Erdogan alongside U.S. President Barack Obama.
And Davutoglu stressed Turkey wouldn't back down after Tuesday's attack, urging his countrymen and people worldwide to unite against this threat.
“We will continue our fight against terror (with) the same firm attitude,” said the Prime Minister, insisting terrorist attacks wouldn't affect Turkey's proud multi-cultural heritage or welcoming nature. “We will never compromise, even one single inch.”
Tuesday's blast rattled Sultanahmet Square around 10:20 a.m. (3:20 a.m. ET) and brought a rush of ambulances and security forces to an area that would have been heavily guarded on any day.
Targeting outsiders would be in line with attacks executed or inspired by ISIS, which has enemies everywhere and has proven willing to strike those who don't subscribe to its twisted, hard-line version of Sharia law.
Turkey is a popular destination for Germans, and Germany's foreign ministry urged travelers in Istanbul “to avoid public gatherings (and) tourist attractions for now” after the attack.
A Norwegian citizen was taken to a nearby hospital after the incident, foreign ministry spokesman Frode Andersen told CNN.
Sajjan Gohel, international security director at the Asia-Pacific Foundation, doesn't think it's a coincidence this suicide blast happened in a square that's both a draw for tourists and significant to Turkey's history and its diverse cultural identity — the type of place, he said, “that ISIS is so deeply opposed to.”
“The type of monuments that are in Sultanahmet Square are the type that ISIS has been blowing up in Syria,” Gohel told CNN. “It's seen as a place where you have a mesh of different entities. It's a real melting pot.”
The blast comes as Turkey deals with multiple security threats — from longstanding nemesis the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, as well as ISIS, which has taken over swaths of Syria and Iraq on its quest to form a far-reaching caliphate.
Ankara has persistently battled the PKK, which the United States and other governments have branded a terror group.
Turkey's actions against ISIS, which first emerged out of Iraq but now has its de facto capital in Syria, are more recent but have nonetheless made it a target of that terrorist group.
Its military cooperation with the United States and other NATO nations in particular has angered ISIS, said Fadi Hakura, associate fellow at Chatham House.
Investigators honed in on ISIS after two suicide blasts in October hit a lunchtime peace rally in Ankara, in which demonstrators were calling for an end to the renewed conflict between the PKK and Turkish government. Those explosions killed as many as 100 people and injured more than 240 more.
Tuesday's blast — if it's confirmed to be the terror group's work — ups the ante for Ankara, forcing it to step up its anti-ISIS fight even more, according to the Asia-Pacific Foundation's Gohel.
“An attack like this is designed to create economic, political and social consequences,” Gohel told CNN. “Turkey has to realize that the pipeline that feeds ISIS from Turkey to Syria has to now be cut off, because incidents like this are not one-offs. This could be part of a series of plots.”
1 Comment
I have thought about this and Have come to the conclusion (In my own opinion) That we are at threat from these for some reason that we are unaware of; Either they are paid mercenaries by a high ranking official or we not US the people but powers that be harmed or provoked them by some means of violence of some kind or poisoned their land in some way, I know for to be Human is not to go all the places you can and kill all you can is not the Normal behavior as Humans, Least one is full of Demonic oppression or Greedy. As to why they just up and think to come here is not a coincidence but a thought process. I further do not understand open borders, and if open, why in the do we have to have a passport to leave America, and how can they afford to get here anyway ? I know I can’t hardly afford to walk my Wife to work, normally due to the 3 Fractured Cervical Spine Vertebrae. So just leaves only a few other reasons left. I say we leave these people alone, and by alone; I mean in their own country, if the refugees are needing our help that is fine, arm the ones that are being abused, not make us un armed so that we may be slaughtered. Way too much going on that we do not know. If my neighbor sins against me I generally will forgive them to a point, leaving it at that but if continued to do so, I can live without that. fool me once shame on me, fool me the second time shame on you. Now I done forgot the question, NO I do not need Hillary she has done it to us more than once and may just be a part of that secret societies thingie i keep hearing about that needs Jesus to resolve that issues they may have or Fallen angel syndrome. Sorry I hope that was plainly put, I am sore as caca from looking down and am done now.