Turkish police announced on Monday that the prime suspect in the attack that killed six people in Istanbul on Sunday is a Syrian citizen who was ordered by the PKK to plant the bomb in Kobane, Syria.
According to Turkish television stations, Istanbul’s security directorate said the woman, who was arrested a few hours after the blast, was named Ahlam Albashir.
The organization also refers to the fact that the suspect was “ordered” by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Kobane, northern Syria, to carry out Sunday’s attack.
The PKK is one of Turkey’s main targets in the border region of Iraq and Syria, with the party banned from Turkish territory.
Earlier, the Turkish Interior Minister announced the arrest of 22 suspects in the bomb attack that killed at least six people on Sunday’s Istiklal shopping street in Istanbul.
Among these suspects is the person who allegedly placed the explosive device, Suleyman Soylu said at the time without revealing his identity.
“The person who planted the bomb has been arrested (…) According to our findings, the terrorist organization is PKK [Partido dos Trabalhadores do Curdistão, ilegalizado] is responsible” before the attack, Soylu added, quoted by Turkey’s official news agency Anadolu and local television stations.
The minister also accused Kurdish forces controlling most of northeastern Syria, which Ankara considers terrorists, to be behind the attack.
“We believe that the order to attack was given by Kobane”indicated.
In the Battle of Kobane in 2015, Kurdish forces succeeded in repelling the extremist group Islamic State (IS). The city is under the control of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), of which the PKK-based People’s Protection Units (YPG) form an important part.
The attack, which has yet to be claimed, left six dead and 81 injured, half of whom were hospitalised. All victims have Turkish nationality.
Closed immediately after the attack, access to the street, frequented by Istanbul residents and tourists, was reopened this morning, Turkish media reported.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was the first to denounce a “vicious attack” shortly before leaving for Indonesia, where the G20 summit will take place from Tuesday. [grupo das 20 economias mais desenvolvidas] in Bali: “first sightings point to a terrorist attack”.
“The perpetrators of this vile attack will be exposed. May our people be safe [de que] will be punished”promised Erdogan, who had already faced a terror campaign across the country in 2015-2016.
The PKK, considered a terrorist organization by Ankara but also by Western allies, including the US and the EU, has been waging an armed struggle against the Turkish government since the mid-1980s. Turkish soil.
In December 2016, 47 people were killed and 160 injured in a double attack near the Besiktas football stadium in Istanbul claimed by the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), a radical Kurdish group close to the PKK.
The PKK is also regularly targeted by Turkish military operations against bases in northern Iraq and Syria.
Last month there were numerous allegations from the opposition and Turkish observers, but denied by the authorities, related to the use of chemical weapons by the Turkish army against PKK fighters who published a list of 17 names accompanied by photos of people presented as martyrs. killed by poisonous gas.
Turkey rejects US condolences
Turkey on Monday rejected condolences from the United States for the deaths of six people in the attack.
“We do not accept the condolence message from the US Embassy. We reject it’Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said in televised remarks.
Erdogan regularly accuses Washington of supplying weapons to Kurdish fighters in northern Syria, whom Ankara considers “terrorists”.
Source: DN
