According to Turkish police, the woman suspected of planting the bomb is a Syrian national who admitted to receiving PKK training.
Suleyman Soylu, the interior minister for Turkey, has blamed a bombing in a busy Istanbul street that left six people dead and dozens more injured on the armed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Numerous people, including a woman believed to have planted the bomb, were detained in connection with the attack on Sunday, according to Istanbul police.
No group has made a claim for the attack as of yet, but the PKK on Monday denied responsibility. The PKK stated on its website that it was “out of the question” for them to target civilians in any way. ”
What is known so far about the explosion is as follows:
46 people, including a woman suspected of planting the bomb, have reportedly been detained by Istanbul police in connection with the attack. According to the police, Ahlam Albashir is a Syrian national who has admitted to receiving PKK training.
The Assassin
According to video made public by the Istanbul police, Albashir had a gun and some ammo at her home, along with a sizable sum of money and some gold. In a live television interview from the scene of the bombing, Istiklal Avenue, Soylu claimed on Monday that Albashir could have escaped to Greece if she hadn’t been detained.
The minister added that police had detained the assassin sent to kill Albashir and that a phone tap had revealed that the PKK had ordered her murder following the attack. The United States, the European Union, Egypt, the Ukraine, Greece, and a number of other nations have all condemned the attack and sent their condolences to the victims.
The YPG, a Syrian Kurdish organization that has fought alongside the US against the Islamic State but is regarded by Turkey as the Syrian affiliate of the PKK, has been linked by Turkish authorities to Washington’s support for the attack. Such attacks “are direct and indirect results of the support some countries give to terrorist organizations,” according to Fahrettin Altun, director of communications for the Turkish presidency.
Soylu compared the condolences from the US to “the murderer showing up among the first at the scene of the crime.” In recent years, Turkish forces have conducted operations against the YPG in Kobane, a city in northern Syria known as Ayn al-Arab in Arabic, according to Soylu.
On her way to Istanbul, Albashir, according to Soylu, traveled through the Turkish-controlled region of Afrin in northern Syria. The attack occurred as Ankara escalated its drone strikes and operations against the PKK leadership in Syria and Iraq, killing a number of people recently, including mid-level officials and members of the leadership.
The PKK has been forced south by the numerous Turkish military operations in northern Iraq. In a bloody conflict that started in the 1980s and has claimed tens of thousands of lives, the PKK, which once fought for a breakaway state but now wants more autonomy for Kurds, has been fighting Turkey’s government.
