Istanbul targeted: Bomb attack on police kills 11 in Turkey

Targets a bus transporting anti-riot police; police detains four suspects

ISTANBUL: A car bombing in Turkey’s Istanbul city on Tuesday killed seven police and four civilians.  The third deadly attack in Turkey’s biggest city in six months targeted a bus transporting anti-riot police in Beyazit district, close to many of the city’s top tourist sites.

“Thirty-six people were wounded, three of them seriously,” said Istanbul Governor Vasip Sahin on Turkish television. The four suspects were taken to police headquarters in Istanbul for interrogation, state-run Anatolia agency said, without providing further information.

There was no early claim of responsibility, but President Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggested the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) was behind the attack.

For the PKK to target major cities such as Istanbul ‘is nothing new,’ he said after visiting the injured at an Istanbul hospital.

“We will fight against terrorists relentlessly to the end.” In a statement from his office later, Erdogan also vowed the culprits would “pay the price for the blood they shed.”

Reports said the explosion took place close to Vezneciler metro station, within walking distance of some of the city’s main tourist sites including the Grand Bazaar and Suleymaniye Mosque.

The blast reduced the police vehicle to mangled wreckage and windows in nearby shops were shattered. Reports said that shots were heard afterwards.

The attack occurred outside the upscale Celal Aga Konagi Hotel, a converted Ottoman mansion that is favoured by foreign tourists.

The 16th-century Sehzade Mosque was also damaged by the force of the explosion.

Television footage showed its windows blown out and debris littering the floor.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 8^th, 2016.