Monday 12 December 2016

Car bomb in Istanbul, kills 38, injures 155



A car bomb outside the Vodafone Arena, home to Istanbul's Besiktas soccer team, followed by a suicide bomb attack in an adjacent park less than a minute later - shook a nation still trying to recover from a series of deadly bombings this year in cities including Istanbul and the capital Ankara.
There was no claim of responsibility, but Numan Kurtulmus, deputy prime minister, said early indications pointed to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has carried out a three-decade insurgency, mainly in Turkey's largely Kurdish southeast. Ten people have been detained so far, he said."The arrows point at the PKK," Mr. Kurtulmus told CNN Turk in an interview. "There will be an announcement once the investigations are over. We cannot say anything definite for now." He said Turkey's allies should show solidarity with it in the fight against terrorism, a reference to the long-standing disagreement with fellow Nato member Washington over Syria. The United States backs the Syrian Kurdish YPG in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Turkey says the militia is an extension of the PKK and a terrorist group.
Flags were at half-mast, and Sunday was declared a day of national mourning, the prime minister's office said in a statement. A march against terrorism had been called for noon local time (0900 GMT) in Istanbul, Mr. Kurtulmus said.
President Tayyip Erdogan canceled a planned trip to Kazakhstan, his office said.


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