On November 13 a bomb explosion happen at a busy Istanbul shopping street Istiklal Avenue, killing 6 and wounded dozens. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the attack “smells like terrorism.”
Turkey’s Vice President confirmed the suicide bomber “appeared to be a woman”. Ahlam Albashir, a Syrian woman who is suspected to have planted the bomb.
The explosion occurred around 4:13 PM. The police said the suicide bomber was trained by Kurdish militants in Syria and to execute the attack she entered through the northwest Syria’s Afrin region.
The forensic experts have collected the dead body after the explosion on Istanbul’s busy pedestrian Istiklal Avenue Nov. 13, 2022.
Turkey’s government blames Kurdish militants as the main suspects and have arrested 22 inlcluding the bomber.
Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said in a press conference that the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, which Ankara says is a wing of the PKK, were responsible for the attack on the historic and bustling Istiklal Avenue on Sunday.
India showed its “deepest condolences” to Turkey. Minister of External Affairs spokesperson twetted “Our sympathies are also with those who sustained injuries. We wish them a speedy recovery,”.
More than 80 people were wounded by the attack. Some of them have been taken to hospital and after necessary treatment has been discharged.
