Block listed terror groups blamed for Istanbul Street blast

One suspect arrested…


The Kurdistan’s Worker’s Party (PKK) was accused by Turkey’s interior minister on responsibility for bombing in a busy Istanbul shopping through fare that has killed six innocent people and on Monday a suspect has been arrested, he said.

 

On Sunday afternoon, the explosion tore through Istiklal Street, a popular shopping destination for locals and tourists, wounding dozens.

In the early hours of Monday, a suspect was arrested.

 

“The person who planted the bomb has been arrested,” according to interior minister Suleyman Soylu, told in a statement broadcast by the official Anadolu news agency.

 

“According to our findings, the PKK terrorist organisation is responsible,” he said.

 

By Ankara, The PKK, blacklisted as a terrorist group as well as its Western allies, has kept up a deadly insurgency for Kurdish self-rule in southeastern Turkey since the 1980s.

 

The group is also at the heart of a tussle between Sweden and Turkey, Regularly targeted by Turkish military operations, which has been blocking Stockholm’s entry into NATO since May, accusing it of leniency towards the PKK.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the “vile attack” on Istiklal.

 

“It might be wrong if we say for sure that this is terror but according to first signs … there is a smell of terror there,” on Sunday, Erdogan told a news conference.

 

Fuat Oktay, Turkey’s vice president said, “We believe that it is a terrorist act carried out by an attacker, whom we consider to be a woman, exploding the bomb”.

 

Justice minister Bekir Bozdag said: “A woman had been sitting on one of the benches for more than 40 minutes and then she got up.”

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