Turkey Detains 3 Russians After Istanbul Bombing
Turkey’s Dogan news agency reported that one Norwegian and one Peruvian were also among the wounded, and Seoul’s Foreign Ministry told reporters via text message that a South Korean had a finger injury.
Reports say 10 people have died in the blast and 15 wounded in Istanbul’s historic Sutlanahmet Square – a major tourist hotspot.
Speaking in Ankara, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the “terrorist” attack and said that a person of Syrian origin was the perpetrator, according to initial assessments.
Turkish officials say that the suicide bomber was a 28-year-old Syrian man, born in 1988 in Saudi Arabia, who entered Turkey from Syria in recent days.
A BOMBER suspected of belonging to Islamic State (Isis) killed himself and 10 others yesterday in Turkey’s largest city Istanbul.
Turkey is a member of the US-led coalition against IS militants, who have taken over parts of neighbouring Syria and Iraq.
Two suicide bombers blew themselves up near a train station during a pro-Kurdish peace rally, killing 100 people.
Hurriyet said tourist guide Sibel Satiroglu, who was injured in the leg by the blast, prevented a greater tragedy by shouting a warning in German before the attack. It was unclear whether the death toll included the bomber. “The US condemns in the strongest terms today’s terrorist attack in Istanbul, Turkey”, Ned Price, spokesman for the White House national Security Council, said in a statement.
Violence has also escalated in the mainly Kurdish southeast since a two-year ceasefire collapsed in July between the state and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group, which has been fighting for three decades for Kurdish autonomy.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet DavutoÄlu says those responsible will be punished. The state-run Anadolu Agency said the suspects were allegedly in contact with Islamic State fighters in conflict zones and had provided logistical support to the group.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said his country would not make any further immediate changes to its travel advice for Turkey but could do so as the investigation into Tuesday’s Istanbul bombing progresses.
“Turkey won’t backtrack in its struggle against Isis by even one step”, Mr Davutoglu said.
The number of Germans killed in the Istanbul suicide bombing has risen to 10.