Turkish media have released photos and videos of the arrest of the woman who allegedly planted the bomb in downtown Istanbul, killing a total of six people.
Arrested by the Turkish police is the woman who is considered a suspect in yesterday’s bomb attack in Istanbul which claimed the lives of six people and injured more than 80.
Ahlam Albasir from Syria who is suspected of planting the bomb.
According to initial information from Turkish police, the woman said she was trained by Kurdish fighters in Syria and entered Turkey through the Afrin region of northwestern Syria.
According to sabah.com , the suspect was arrested at night in an apartment in the Kucukcekmeze district of Istanbul, wearing the clothes she was wearing at the time of the explosion.
The woman was taken to the anti-terrorist department of the Istanbul police.
Turkish media had released a new video of the woman running through the crowd minutes before the deadly explosion.
More than 20 total arrestsThe arrest of the “person” who allegedly left the bomb in Istanbul was announced in the early hours of Monday, by Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu , simultaneously blaming the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party , for the attack.”The person who planted the bomb has been arrested. Based on our conclusions, the PKK terrorist organization is responsible” for the bomb blast, Mr Soylu said.
Justice Minister Bekir Bozda had earlier referred to a “bag” left on a bench: “A woman sat on a bench for 40 to 45 minutes and, a minute or two later, there was an explosion. All data on this woman is under review “, he continued. “Either this bag had a clock mechanism, or someone remotely detonated it,” he added.
Condemnation of Erdogan
President Erdogan condemned the “vulgar attack” before leaving for Indonesia and the G20 summit in Bali: he spoke of an act that gives off the “smell of terrorism” and added that “a woman was involved in it”. He promised that the perpetrators would be “revealed”, adding that “our people should be sure that they will be punished”.
PKK and NATO
The explosion, which was very powerful, was heard at a great distance and caused panic among passers-by.
“People were running in panic. The bang was huge. Black smoke was rising. The sound was very loud, almost deafening,” said eyewitness Kemal Denizci, 57, who saw many people down.
The PKK, a Kurdish separatist group that took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984, is designated a “terrorist” organization by Ankara, the US and the EU. More than 40,000 people, mostly minorities, have since been killed in the war, mostly in southeastern Turkey.
The organization has claimed responsibility for many bloody attacks on Turkish soil.
