Serious intel failure in Gaziantep wedding attack: CHP head
GAZİANTEP
AA photo
The leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has said there was a “serious intelligence failure” regarding the alleged Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) suicide attack on a wedding in the Şahinbey district of the southeastern province of Gaziantep, which claimed the lives of 54 people and wounded many others. The state should prevent these kinds of attacks after receiving intelligence, CHP head Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu also said, as he visited the scene of the attack on Aug. 23.“Apparently there has been a serious intelligence failure and a gap in administration. We hope that the government learns lessons from this and these painful scenes won’t take place again,” Kılıçdaroğlu told journalists, adding the state should have full command of “all events.”
“The families who lost their children and relatives told us, ‘We are suffering. No one else should experience it, please take the necessary precautions.’ The institution that we call ‘the state’ should have full command of all events. It should be governed in terms of merit. The state should obtain intelligence on these attacks before they are carried out and prevent them,” he also said.
During his visit to the scene of the attack, Kılıçdaroğlu said the province was “a significant one,” and the suffering from the attack “was common to all.”
“We experienced a very serious suffering in the recent days. That’s our common pain,” he added.
Kılıçdaroğlu was accompanied by Gaziantep Metropolitan Mayor Fatma Şahin and several other lawmakers from the CHP.
The group visited houses in the area to offer their condolences to the people who lost their family members or friends.
Kılıçdaroğlu then went to examine the street where the suicide attack was carried out and received information regarding the incident.
