6 killed 81 injured in Istanbul bomb blast

[Anthea]

Initial signs point to terror attack

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemns the "vile attack" that left dozens of people injured and six people dead as it tore through the heart of Istanbul

The explosion in Istanbul on Sunday that left six people dead and 53 injured, according to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, appeared to be the result of a "terror" attack.

"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," Erdogan told a televised press conference.

İstiklal Caddesi’nde meydana gelen bombalı saldırıda vefat eden kardeşlerimize Allah’tan rahmet, yakınlarına sabır, yaralılarımıza acil şifalar diliyorum.

Ülkemize, milletimize, İstanbul’umuza geçmiş olsun.
— Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (@RTErdogan) November 13, 2022

He condemned the "vile attack" that left dozens of people injured and six people dead as it tore through the heart of Istanbul. "The relevant units of our state are working to find the perpetrators... behind this vile attack," Erdogan said.

According to the President, a "bomb attack" was what caused the explosion in Istanbul's Istiklal Street, and six people died as a result of the incident.

Before leaving for the G-20 summit in Indonesia, Erdogan said Sunday that the explosion was a "treacherous attack" and that those responsible would face consequences. According to information he obtained from the governor of Istanbul, another 53 people were hurt.

- 6 people dead, 53 others injured
- Wishing Allah’s mercy on those who lost their lives
- Türkiye not to bow down to terrorism
- All the perpetrators to be identified pic.twitter.com/r75oGEgfev

Istanbul attacker appears to be a woman: Turkey's Vice President

Turkish authorities classify the Sunday explosion in the center of Istanbul as a terrorists attack that was carried out by a woman, Vice President Fuat Oktay said, citing preliminary data.

"We consider it a terrorist act, carried out by a perpetrator, who is believed to be a woman, detonating a bomb, according to preliminary information," Oktay said.

The number of injured people rose from 53 to 81, with two in serious condition, the senior official said

Oktay pledged that Turkish authorities would promptly investigate the terrorist act and bring those responsible for it to justice.

"According to preliminary data, as a result of the explosion on Istiklal Avenue, four people were killed, and 38 people injured. The injured received medical assistance," the governor, Ali Yerlikaya, said earlier on Twitter.

According to a source familiar with the situation who spoke to Sputnik, Turkish law enforcement officials are looking into whether the explosion that occurred on Sunday in the heart of Istanbul was a terrorist attack.

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/pol ... in-istanbu

[Anthea]

Turkey restricts social media

Turkey's Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTUK) announces a media blackout following the explosion in Taksim, Istanbul

Turkey is under a social media blackout, following the deadly explosion on Istiklal Street in Taksim, Istanbul, which restricted media coverage of the incident on multiple internet providers, according to network data.

The disruption comes as Turkey's Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTUK) announced a media blackout on the subject of the explosion.

According to Real-time NetBlocks statistics, social media and communication platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and some Telegram servers are currently restricted

The measure was initially implemented on leading network operator Turk Telekom before covering most of the major internet service providers. Metrics are collected from an initial set of 50 vantage points across the country to confirm user reports of service outages.

Turkey has a long history of restricting access to social media platforms in the aftermath of explosions, political incidents, and terror attacks. However, the policy has been criticized for restricting access to support and assistance in times of emergency, as well as for restricting press freedom.

The ongoing censorship of Twitter among other social media platforms in #Turkey will be the first real international test for Twitter's @policy and human rights teams after Elon Musk's acquisition and staff reduction. Hours on, there is still no public statement from the company. https://t.co/OinBIPKhIB
— Alp Toker (@atoker) November 13, 2022

Access to information is vital in times of emergency. Research shows that social media restrictions increase misinformation after security incidents and attacks.#Turkey should end its policy of social media blackouts (and platforms should carefully moderate) during crises. https://t.co/TQol7tqG9y
— Alp Toker (@atoker) November 13, 2022

Following the publication of this report, Turkey's Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) confirmed that social media restrictions had been imposed, stating that they were in place to prevent the publication and circulation of images from the scene of the incident.

This type of disruption can be avoided by using VPN services, which can bypass government internet censorship.

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/pol ... m-istanbul

[Anthea]

Bombing suspect arrested

Turkey's interior minister Suleyman Soylu said on Monday that the person who planted the bomb on Istanbul's Istiklal Street that claimed the lives of at least six people, has been arrested, according to state-run Anadolu agency's English-language Twitter account

Besides six people getting killed, 81 others were wounded in Sunday's incident when an explosion rocked the busy pedestrian street.

Soylu accused the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) of causing the bomb attack. “According to our findings, the PKK terrorist organisation is responsible,” he said, according to AFP.

Earlier, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said the bomb attack “smells like terrorism”. Furthermore, he and his vice president, Faut Oktay, had said that a “woman” bomber was responsible for the attack.

Video footage that surfaced online soon after the explosion showed hundreds of people fleeing the street after black smoke covered the region, as ambulances and police rushed there. The place was crowded with tourists, families and shoppers in its usual manner.

Following the blast, several people were seen lying on the ground as others ran away, with parents grabbing their children in their arms.

Authorities later informed that a Turkish government ministry worker and his daughter were among the dead. Five persons among those injured were shifted to intensive care in a hospital, with two of them being in a critical condition, Reuters reported.

Erdogan told a news conference that efforts to “defeat Turkey and the Turkish people through terrorism will fail today just as they did yesterday and as they will tomorrow”.

“Our people can rest assured that the culprits... will be punished as they deserve,” he was quoted as saying by Reuters.

Meanwhile, Anadolu reported Turkish justice minister Bekir Bozdag as saying that a woman had sat on a bench in the street for over 40 minutes before leaving minutes before the blast, implying a bomb was timed to explode or was detonated from afar.

Messages of condemnations of the attack and condolences for the victims have poured in from multiple nations, including Ukraine, Britain, Italy, Egypt and Greece, among others.

No one has claimed responsibility of the attack so far.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-ne ... 4-amp.html

[Anthea]

Turkey makes more arrests

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkish police have apprehended more suspects in connection with the bombing of a bustling pedestrian avenue in Istanbul that killed six people and wounded several dozen others, bringing the number of people in custody to 50, Turkey’s justice minister said Tuesday

Sunday’s explosion targeted Istiklal Avenue — a popular thoroughfare lined with shops and restaurants — and was a stark reminder of bombings in Turkish cities between 2015 and 2017 that crushed the public’s sense of security.

Turkish authorities blamed the attack on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, as well as Syrian Kurdish groups affiliated with it. The Kurdish militants groups have, however, denied involvement.

Police carried out raids in Istanbul several hours after the blast and detained 48 people, including a Syrian woman who is suspected of leaving a TNT-laden bomb at Istiklal.

Police said the woman, identified as Ahlam Albashir, had crossed into Turkey from Syria illegally and has admitted to carrying out the attack.

On Tuesday, Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said the number of suspects in custody has increased to 50, but did not provide details. The state-run Anadolu Agency said police on Tuesday detained two brothers, identified as Ammar J. and Ahmed J.

Ammar J. was allegedly tasked with helping Albashir flee Istanbul to neighboring Greece after the attack, while Ahmed J. allegedly drove a suspect who is still at large, to Edirne province, near the border with Bulgaria, Anadolu reported.

“Turkey continues with its fight against terrorism with determination,” the independent T24 news website quoted the minister as saying. “No terrorist organization will succeed in any kind of plot against Turkey.”

Around 80 people were hospitalized following the attack, of whom at least 57 have been discharged. Six of the wounded were in intensive care and two of them were in serious condition, officials said.

The six killed in the blast were members of three families and included two girls, ages 9 and 15.

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, has fought an armed insurgency in Turkey since 1984. The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people since then.

Ankara and Washington both consider the PKK a terrorist group, but disagree on the status of the Syrian Kurdish groups, which have been allied with the U.S. in the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria.

Turkey has been infuriated by U.S. support for the Kurdish militia in Syria, and on Monday, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said he rejects messages of condolences from Washington.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, however, posted on social media a chart with the flags of all countries that have offered their condolences — including the American flag — with a message expressing his “heartfelt gratitude” to all states and institutions that have “shared our grief."

https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/capit ... ly-bombing

[Anthea]

PYD: Turkey preparing attacks

Democratic Union Party said that Turkish occupation state is "preparing for new attacks on our regions ", with its "deliberate accusations for our forces and regions" about the Istanbul explosion

Today, Tuesday, General Council of the Democratic Union Party issued a written statement to the public opinion, that reads:

"At the outset, we condemn and denounce the attack that targeted civilians in Taksim Square in the Turkish city of Istanbul, and we consider it a criminal act against innocent people.

The Turkish state, which daily kills unarmed civilians in our region, children, women and the elderly, wants to deliberately accusing our forces and our regions about the brutal operation, and wants to prepare for new attacks on our regions,

What the Turkish media promotes is nothing but a game fabricated by Turkish intelligence, and its goal is to distortion what the Syrian Democratic Forces did, which defeated the most powerful extremist terrorist organization in the world, and such attempts are not new for Turkey, as the Turkish state has worked to carry out criminal acts against the peoples and Democratic powers in Turkey

We call on the international community not to fall into this dirty trap of the Turkish state, because the Special War government; is currently managing Turkey to be able to hide its use of chemical weapons against freedom fighters and its crimes against the Kurdish people.

We once again condemn this shameful act and ask God to give patience and solace to the families of those who lost their lives and to the wounded for a speedy recovery."

[Anthea]

Turkey arrests explosion suspect

Turkish authorities on Wednesday arrested a man in Turkey-controlled city of Azaz in northwest Syria for allegedly helping the main suspect of the recent deadly blast in Istanbul, reported state media

A TNT explosion killed six people and injured 81 others in Istanbul’s famous Taksim thoroughfare on Sunday. Police have arrested about 50 people at home, including a 23-year-old Syrian woman named Ahlam Albashir whom the police believes is the main perpetrator of the explosion.

Turkish state-owned Anadolu Agency reported late Wednesday that Turkish forces have arrested a man, codenamed Husam, in Azaz city which is controlled by Ankara and its Syrian proxies. He is believed to have helped Albashir in carrying out the attack.

Turkish authorities have blamed the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) which controls northeast Syria (Rojava) for the explosion but the group has denied any responsibility.

The state media claimed that Husam is a member of the YPG and moved from Syria to Istanbul one year ago, adding that he managed to flee Turkey while police were chasing him.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeas ... /161120221

[Anthea]

17 Suspects Charged

Turkish court on Friday charged 17 of the suspects detained for their alleged involvement in the recent deadly attack in Istanbul, including a Syrian woman believed to be the main perpetrator of the explosion, according to state media

A TNT-laden bomb exploded in Istanbul’s bustling Istiklal Avenue on Sunday, killing six people and injuring 81 others, according to official figures. Police arrested 49 people, including a 23-year-old Syrian woman named Ahlam Albashir whom the authorities claim is the main perpetrator of the explosion.

The suspects were tried for the first time on Friday and were questioned by 29 public prosecutors in Istanbul. The country’s criminal court ordered to send 17 of these people to jail, including Albashir, release three on bail and deport the remaining 29, reported Anadolu Agency.

No information about the 29 suspects who face deportation has been provided.

All the suspects are accused of "destroying the unity and integrity of the state," "deliberate killing," "deliberately attempting to kill" and "deliberately aiding murder."

Anadolu Agency reported on Wednesday that Turkish forces arrested a man, codenamed Husam, in Azaz city which is controlled by Ankara and its Syrian proxies. He is believed to have helped Albashir in carrying out the attack.

Turkish authorities have blamed the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) which controls northeast Syria (Rojava) for the explosion but the group has denied any responsibility.

The state media claimed that Husam is a member of the YPG and moved from Syria to Istanbul one year ago, adding that he managed to flee Turkey while police were chasing him.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeas ... y/18112022