ISTANBUL: The suspect who left the bomb that killed six people and injured 81 others on Istanbul’s Istiklal Avenue was captured, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said early Monday. Soylu was speaking to reporters at the scene of the explosion, which tore down the busy shopping street.
He said 21 others linked to the bomber were also detained, adding the existing findings showed it was an attack perpetrated by the PKK/YPG terrorist group, referring to a branch of the PKK terrorist group in Syria’s north, bordering Türkiye. “We have evaluated that the instruction for the attack came from Kobani,” Soylu told reporters, adding that the bomber had “passed through Afrin in northern Syria.”
“We know what the message of the perpetrators of this attack was. We received the message and let them make no mistake and we will duly respond to their message,” the minister said, referring to Türkiye’s counterterrorism efforts that took place in Syria and Iraq in recent years, in a bid to curb the power of terrorist groups from PKK/YPG to Daesh.
Soylu singled out the United States among the countries sending their condolences and said Ankara does not accept Washington’s sentiments. –Agencies
