Isıl Behind Oct 10 Ankara Massacre, Says Prosecutor's Office

An Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) sleeper cell based in the southeastern province of Gaziantep was behind twin suicide bombings that killed 100 peace activists in Ankara on Oct. 10, the Ankara Prosecutor's Office said in a written statement.

"The cell received permission from the terrorist group in Syria to attack all PKK and anti-Daesh targets inside Turkey" the prosecutor's office said, using the Arabic acronym for ISIL.

The postponement of the Nov. 1 snap elections was one of motives behind the attack, it said.

The attack aimed at "getting the Nov. 1 general elections postponed by having terrorist activities extended," the prosecutor's office said in a written statement.

"Disrupting political stability by sabotaging the upcoming elections and complicating the formation of a government … that would emerge after the elections" were some of the other hypothesized reasons for the massacre, it said, adding that it arrived at these conclusions from "data found on digital material." - Ankara