The attack killed at least six people and injured 81, half of whom had to be hospitalized. Among the victims, all Turkish citizens, are a 9-year-old girl and a 15-year-old girl. Swhich occurred in the middle of the afternoon, Sunday November 13, in an ultra-popular pedestrian street in the center of Istanbul, the shopping street of Istikal, the attack has not yet been claimed, the Turkish authorities communicated overnight on the progress of the investigation.
Here is what we know, the day after this attack.
22 people arrested
“The person who planted the bomb has been arrested”announced the Turkish Interior Minister, Suleyman Soylu, in a nocturnal statement, relayed by the official Anadolu agency and local television.
He then confirmed the arrest of twenty-one other suspects.
Ankara accuses the PKK
If he did not specify where the arrests had taken place, he accused the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Ankara considers the Kurdish forces that control most of northeastern Syria to be terrorists. “We believe that the order for the attack was given from Kobané”, said the Minister of the Interior. A city that has remained famous for the battle which, in 2015, enabled Kurdish forces to repel the Islamic State group, Kobané is controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) whose People’s Protection Units (YPG), allied to the PKK, are a major component.
The PKK, also considered a terrorist organization by Turkey’s Western allies, including the United States and the European Union, has been in an armed struggle against the Turkish government since the mid-1980s. It has often been blamed bloody attacks on Turkish soil in the past. The PKK is also regularly targeted by Turkish military operations against its bases in northern Iraq and Syria.
A woman “involved”?
Earlier in the evening, Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag reported that a “woman sat on a bench for 40 to 45 minutes and after a minute or two there was an explosion”. During his speech, President Erdogan in turn affirmed that“a woman (…) would be involved” in the attack, without further details. Remarks subsequently taken up by its vice-president, Fuat Oktay.
Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu did not specify the conditions under which the “nobody” suspect has been arrested, or whether it is a woman.