Turkish police detail 22 people over Istanbul bombing
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Salma Hossein
- . November 14, 2022
- . Update: November 15, 2022 1:17 pm
According to an official, Turkish police have detained 22 persons in connection with the bombing in central Istanbul that left at least eight people dead and 81 others injured.
Suleyman Soylu, the interior minister, told reporters on Monday that one of the suspects was “the individual who left the bomb that caused the explosion” on a crowded street in the capital of Turkey.
Soylu attributed responsibility for the explosion on Istiklal Avenue to the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), claiming that the group’s Syrian headquarters is in Ayn al-Arab (Kobane), where the attack was ordered.
He also stated that 81 people had been injured, with two of them in “serious condition,” and that the death toll had increased from six to eight. “We will retaliate against those who are guilty for this terrible terror assault,” he warned. The explosion has not yet been assigned a perpetrator by any group.
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The explosion, according to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was “treacherous” and “smells like terrorism,” he claimed on Sunday. A lady “had played a part” in the incident, Erdogan declared in a speech prior to his departure for the G20 conference in Indonesia.
Later on Sunday, Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag told A Haber television that the woman was observed spending more than 40 minutes sitting on a seat on Istiklal Avenue. He claimed that she had only recently gotten up when the explosion happened.
He informed A Haber, “There are two choices. This bag either bursts due to a mechanism inside it or is remotely detonated by someone.” Pictures of the woman thought to be responsible for the attack were obtained first by Al Jazeera.
