ISTANBUL: Turkish police said Monday that they have detained a Syrian woman with suspected links to Kurdish militants and that she confessed to planting a bomb that exploded on a bustling pedestrian avenue in Istanbul, killing six people and wounding several dozen others.
Sunday’s explosion occurred on Istiklal Avenue, a popular thoroughfare lined with shops and restaurants that leads to the iconic Taksim Square.
“A little while ago, the person who left the bomb was detained by our Istanbul Police Department teams,” Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu announced early on Monday. Police later identified the suspect as Ahlam Albashir, a Syrian national.
The Istanbul Police Department said videos from some 1,200 security cameras were reviewed and raids were carried out at 21 locations. At least 46 other people were also detained for questioning.
The suspected allegedly departed the scene in a taxi after leaving TNT-type explosives on the crowded avenue, police said.
Sunday’s explosion was a shocking reminder of the anxiety that stalked the Turkish population during years when such attacks were common. The country was hit by a string of deadly bombings between 2015 and 2017, some by the Daesh group, others by Kurdish militants who seek increased autonomy or independence.
The outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has denied any role in the deadly weekend attack.
“Our people and the democratic public know closely that we are not related to this incident, that we will not directly target civilians and that we do not accept actions targeting civilians,” the group said in a statement published by the Firat news agency. Firat is close to the PKK, which is listed as a terror group by Turkiye and its Western allies.
A police forensic team work at the scene after an explosion on busy pedestrian Istiklal street in Istanbul, on Nov. 13, 2022. (Reuters)
Police said the suspect told them during her interrogation that she had been trained as a “special intelligence officer” by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, as well as the Syrian Kurdish group the Democratic Union Party and its armed wing. She entered Turkiye illegally through the Syrian border town of Afrin, according to the police statement.
The suspect would have fled to neighboring Greece if she had not been detained, the interior minister said.
Earlier, Soylu said security forces believe that instructions for the attack came from Kobani, the majority Kurdish city in northern Syria that borders Turkiye. He said the attack would be avenged.
“We know what message those who carried out this action want to give us. We got this message,” Soylu said. “Don’t worry, we will pay them back heavily in return.”
Soylu also blamed the United States, saying a condolence message from the White House was akin to “a killer being first to show up at a crime scene.” Turkiye has been infuriated by US support for Syrian Kurdish groups.
In its condolence message, the White House said it strongly condemned the “act of violence” in Istanbul, adding: “We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our NATO ally (Turkiye) in countering terrorism.”
Turkish television broadcast footage purporting to show the main suspect being detained at a house where she was allegedly hiding. It said police searching the house also seized large amounts of cash, gold items and a gun.
Police later also released a photograph showing the woman standing between two Turkish flags, in handcuffs.
The minister told reporters that Kurdish militants had allegedly given orders for the main suspect to be killed to avoid evidence being traced back to them.
Istanbul Gov. Ali Yerlikaya said of the 81 people who were hospitalized, 57 have been discharged. Six of the wounded were in intensive care and two of them were in life-threatening condition, he said. The six who were killed in the blast were members of three families and included children aged 15 and 9.
Istiklal Avenue was reopened to pedestrian traffic at 6 a.m. on Monday after police concluded inspections at the scene. People began leaving carnations at the site of the blast, while the street was decorated with hundreds of Turkish flags.
The PKK has fought an insurgency in Turkiye since 1984. The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people since then.
Ankara and Washington both consider the PKK a terrorist group but they diverge on the issue of the Syrian Kurdish groups, which have fought against the Daesh group in Syria.
In recent years, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has led a broad crackdown on the militants as well as on Kurdish lawmakers and activists. Amid skyrocketing inflation and other economic troubles, Erdogan’s anti-terrorism campaign is a key rallying point for him ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections next year.
Following the attacks between 2015 and 2017 that left more than 500 civilians and security personnel dead, Turkiye launched cross-border military operations into Syria and northern Iraq against Kurdish militants, while also cracking down on Kurdish politicians, journalists and activists at home.
