Istanbul attack kills 38, Turkey government points at PKK

ISTANBUL, Turkey (Kurdistan24) – Two bombs outside a football stadium on late Saturday night in central Istanbul killed at least 38 people and wounded more than 150 others.

Thirty police officers were killed, including seven civilians, while the identity of one victim remained unclear.

The explosions by a car bomb and a suicide bomber targeted riot police in a bus tasked with the security of a match between football clubs Besiktas and Bursaspor revealed a Kurdistan24 reporter near the scene.

A day of mourning was announced throughout the country, as flags flew at half-mast.

Shortly after the twin bombing, Turkey’s state media regulator RTUK issued a gag order to news outlets.

However, social media exploded with footage showing the ensuing fire and smoke, as well as dozens of ambulances and police reinforcements rushing to the scene.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the attack the “ugliest form of terrorism” and said some countries were choosing to support “terrorists instead of siding with the Turkish nation.”

The White House, the State Department, the United States Embassy in Ankara, and numerous European Union officials condemned the bombings in messages of solidarity with their NATO ally Turkey.

There was no claim of responsibility at the time of publishing this report, but Turkish government officials blamed the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus on Sunday told CNN Turk TV the perpetrators were still unknown.

Kurtulmus said the attack carried hallmarks of the PKK, the militant group waging a decades-long guerrilla war against Turkey over government suppression of Kurdish cultural rights and political demands.

A PKK splinter group, the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), usually claims attacks in urban centers such as the June Istanbul and March Ankara bombings, targeting security forces but not refraining from causing civilian casualties.

Another suspect was the Islamic State (IS) group which rules large swaths of Iraq and Syria.

IS had previously targeted Turkey most notably in the late June Ataturk Airport attack that killed 45 people and injured over 230.

In a second attack in August, an IS suicide bomber blew himself up at a Kurdish wedding in the city of Gaziantep on the border with Syria, killing 57 men, women, and kids, and wounding 66 others.

Shortly after, Turkey launched an incursion into Syria to drive IS from its southern border and deny further territorial expansion to the US-backed Kurdish forces there.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany

(Ercan Dag in Istanbul contributed to this report)