Including Suspected Perpetrators, Turkish Police Arrest 22 People In Connection With Istanbul Bomb Explosion

JAKARTA - The Turkish government blames Kurdish insurgents for the Istanbul Istiklal Street bomb blast that killed six people, saying police have detained 22 suspects, including the person who planted the bomb.

Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said the order to attack Istiklal Avenue was given in Kobani, a town in northern Syria, where Turkish forces have been carrying out operations against the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia in recent years.

Minister Soylu added that the bombers had passed through Afrin, another region in northern Syria.

Fifty people were discharged from the hospital after Sunday's attacks, sparking fears Turkey could be hit by more bombings and attacks, like the series it suffered between mid-2015 and 2017.

Among those injured on Sunday, two out of five people treated in the intensive care unit were in critical condition, the Istanbul governor's office said. They are among 31 injured people who are still being treated in the hospital.

It was reported earlier that six Turks, two members of three families each, were killed in the attack. No group has yet claimed responsibility.

Television news reports showed images of a person, who appeared to be a woman, leaving packages under a raised flowerbed on Istiklal Avenue, a popular spot for shoppers and tourists alike with tram lines running along the street.

Hundreds of people fled historic Istiklal Avenue after the explosion, as ambulances and police rushed in. The area, in the Beyoglu district, is as usual on the weekends packed with shoppers, tourists, and families.

Video footage obtained by Reuters showed the moment the explosion occurred at 4.13 pm local time, sending debris into the air and leaving some people lying on the ground, while others staggered.

"Attempts to defeat Turkey and the Turkish people through terrorism will fail today as they did yesterday and tomorrow," President Erdogan said at a press conference before flying to Indonesia for the G20 summit.

"Our people can rest assured that the culprits will be properly punished," he stressed, adding that initial information suggested "a woman played a role" in it.

"It would be wrong to say this is undoubtedly a terrorist attack, but early developments and early intelligence from my governor is that it reeks of terrorism," he added.

Istanbul has been targeted in the past by Kurdish, Islamist, and leftist militants. An offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) claimed twin bombings outside an Istanbul football stadium in December 2016 that killed 38 people and injured 155 others.

Ankara says the YPG, which Washington supports in the conflict in Syria, is a wing of the PKK.

Turkey has carried out three attacks in northern Syria against the YPG, including in 2019, seizing hundreds of kilometers of land. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said this year, Turkey would again target the YPG.

The PKK has led an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984 and more than 40,000 people have been killed in clashes. It is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the European Union, and the United States.