Arrested with around twenty other suspects, she recognized the facts and having acted “on the orders of the Kurdistan workers’ party,” says Turkish police.
Le Monde
After the attack that struck Istanbul’s heart on Sunday, a young woman was arrested and accused of having laid the bomb that killed six. Of Syrian nationality, the suspect recognized the facts, the Turkish police announced on Monday, November 14, cited by local media.
“The person who placed the bomb was arrested,” said Interior Minister Süleyman Soyu early Monday. Police images shared by the Turkish media show a young woman in purple sweatshirt apprehended in an apartment. According to the police, she admitted that she had acted on the orders of the Kurdistan workers’ party (PKK) and received directives in Kobane, northeast of Syria. It would have entered clandestine in Turkey via Afrin, a locality of the northeast Syrian controlled by Turkish soldiers and their Syrian auxiliaries. According to the Minister of the Interior, she was about to “flee in Greece”.
“Operations continue” to stop other suspects, he continued. And to hammer: “They wanted to send us a message, we have received it and we will answer it in the firmest way.
“According to our conclusions, the terrorist organization PKK is responsible for the attack, said the minister. Apart from the young woman, the Turkish authorities arrested 46 people, the day after this attack, which struck rue Istiklal, one of the busiest arteries in Istanbul, in the middle of the afternoon on Sunday.
According to a latest assessment, the attack left six people dead and ninety-one injured, half of which remains hospitalized on Monday. There are among the victims, all Turkish, a 9-year-old girl killed with her father and a 15-year-old teenager, who died with her mother.
Monday, Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soyu, rejected condolences of the United States, which, according to him, “support the” Kurdish terrorists. “Our alliance with a state that maintains Kobane and pockets of terror (…) must be debated,” added Mr. Soylu.
Ankara regularly accuses the United States and other Western countries of protecting Kurdish fighters from the PKK and the people’s protection units (YPG), considered terrorists by Ankara.
The city of Kobane remained famous for the battle which, in 2015, allowed the Kurdish forces supported by the Western coalition to repel the Islamic State jihadist group. It is controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (FDS), including the YPG – allied with the PKK – are a major component.