ISTANBUL, (HRNW) – Turkey’s government blamed Kurdish militants on Monday for a blast that killed six people in Istanbul’s main shopping street, and said police had detained 22 suspects, including the person who had planted the bomb.
Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said the order for the attack on Istiklal Avenue was given in Kobani, a city in northern Syria, where Turkish forces have carried out operations against the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia in recent years.
Soylu added that the bomber had passed through Afrin, another region in northern Syria.
Six Turkish citizens, two members each of three families, were killed in the attack. No group has claimed responsibility.
Television news reports showed images of a person, who appeared to be a woman, leaving a package below a raised flower bed on the historic Istiklal Avenue, a popular spot for shoppers and tourists with a tramline running its length.
Fifty people were discharged from hospital after Sunday’s attack, which sparked concerns that Turkey could be hit with more bombings and attacks, like the series that it suffered between mid-2015 and 2017.