TAK claims Istanbul attack

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) on Sunday claimed the Saturday Istanbul attack that killed at least 38 people, seven of them civilians, and wounded over 150.

In a statement on its website, the group said its two suicide bombers conducted the bombings, killing themselves along with “about 100 police officers, and wounding hundreds more.”

The TAK said it would reveal the identity of the militants in the coming days.

“Turkish people are not the direct target of the TAK. As a matter of fact, Martyr Tirej Revenge Team handled this action with great rigor,” read the statement which held the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) responsible for the rising violence.

The TAK team appears to have been named after another suicide bomber Musa Ozdemir, codenamed “Tirej Givara.”

Ozdemir was killed by the police before detonating his car bomb in the southern city of Adana on Nov. 24, several hours after a bombing that killed two people and wounded 33.

The militant group which targets government forces in urban centers, but does not refrain from causing civilian casualties, claims to have splintered from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in 2004.

The Turkish government does not make a difference between the two.

Earlier on Sunday, Turkey’s Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told reporters in Istanbul the PKK was “almost certainly” behind the bombings.

Deputy PM Numan Kurtulmus told private CNN Turk TV the target was clearly riot police tasked with the security of a match between football clubs Besiktas and Bursaspor.

Kurtulmus added the violence occurred after thousands of fans left the Vodafone Arena Stadium.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany