International
Turkish police arrest 22 over Istanbul bombing that killed eight, wounded 100
The police in Turkey have arrested 22 people over a late Sunday bombing in central Istanbul that left at least eight people dead and over 100 others wounded, according to an official statement from the office of the Interior Minister.
The Turkish Interior Minister, Suleyman Soylu, who addressed a press conference on Monday morning, said the arrested suspects included “the person who left the bomb that caused the explosion” on a busy thoroughfare in Turkey’s largest city.
Soylu also blamed the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) for Sunday’s blast which occurred on Istiklal Avenue.
“Our assessment is that the order for the deadly terror attack came from Ayn al-Arab Kobane in northern Syria where the group has its Syrian headquarters.
“We will retaliate against those who are responsible for this heinous terror attack. So far, the death toll has risen from six to eight and over 100 people had been wounded, with some of them in critical condition,” he said.
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has described the explosion as “treacherous” and said it “smells like terrorism”.
Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag told the A Haber television that a woman was seen sitting on one of the benches on Istiklal Avenue for more than 40 minutes and the explosion occurred just minutes after she got up, which has given an indication that she must have left the explosive device.
“There are two possibilities. There’s either a mechanism placed in this bag and it explodes, or someone remotely explodes it,” Bozdag said.
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