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Five years on, no justice for victims of IS suicide bombing spree in Turkey

Families of the 33 victims of the devastating Suruc attack by an Islamic State suicide bomber commemorated the massacre today, reminding Turkey and the world that justice has yet to be served.

The mother of a victim (C) cries for her son on his coffin during a funeral ceremony in Gaziantep on July 21, 2015, following a suicide bomb attack the day before which killed at least 31 in the southern Turkish town of Suruc. A suspected Islamic State suicide bomber killed at least 31 people in an attack on a Turkish cultural centre in the southern town of Suruc, where activists had gathered to prepare for an aid mission in the nearby Syrian town of Kobane. It was one of the deadliest attacks in Turkey in
The mother of a victim (C) cries for her son on his coffin during a funeral ceremony in Gaziantep on July 21, 2015, following a suicide bomb attack the day before which killed 33 in the southern Turkish town of Suruc. — BULENT KILIC/AFP via Getty Images

Five years ago today, an Islamic State suicide bomber blew himself up at a cultural center in Turkey’s southeastern border town of Suruc. The attack killed 33 civilians, the first in a wave of bloody jihadi attacks against Kurdish activists and their allies inside Turkey. Families of the victims say justice has yet to be served.

Seyh Abdurrahman Alagaoz killed himself along with the tens of idealistic youths who had arrived from across Turkey. They were planning to carry toys, medical supplies and other materials to Kobani, the mainly Kurdish Syrian town directly across the border from Suruc that was reduced to ruins in a bloody standoff with IS.

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