Turkey arrests Syrian woman in deadly Istanbul bomb attack, PKK denies involvement
- Six people were killed, dozens wounded in explosion Sunday that rocked tourist district
- PKK group has denied any role in the deadly weekend attack, saying: ‘we do not accept actions targeting civilians’
Turkish police said on 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.
Earlier on Monday, Turkey’s interior minister had accused the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) of responsibility for the bombing.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the bombing a “vile attack “and said it had a “smell of terror”.
