No group had yet claimed responsibility for the blast but pro-government media pointed the finger at Islamic State jihadists.
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Yet there’s also a sense that Irish visitors to Turkey know its summer tourist hubs are situated far from Istanbul and Ankara, where 37 people died in a suicide attack last Sunday and over a hundred more were killed at a peace rally in October. Broadcaster CNN-Turk said they were Simha Siman Demri, 60, Yonathan Suher, 40, Avraham Goldman, 70 and an Iranian identified as Ali Riza Khalman, whose age was not given. Unconfirmed reports also state Turkish police are looking at three possible male suspects, two of them being from the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep near the Syrian border.
A suicide bombing in Istanbul on Saturday killed two Israeli citizens, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
The post Suicide bomber kills four, wounds dozens in strike on Istanbul appeared first on PBS NewsHour.
TV pictures showed an area being cordoned off by police in Istiklal Street, a wide pedestrian boulevard lined with global stores and shopping centres. Meanwhile, His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah yesterday sent a cable of condolence to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan over the victims of yesterday’s suicide bombing. Our fight against terrorism will continue with full force in and out of the country.
But the private Dogan news agency said at least three of the injured are Israeli nationals and that the wounded included two children.
The explosion went off on Istiklal Street, near a government building, during a busy shopping period.
Thirty-six people were injured in the blast, Turkish Health Minister Mehmet Muezzinoglu told reporters.
“I don’t see much change for Irish people coming to Turkey because the majority come to Bodrum, Kusadasi and Antalya (on the Mediterranean coast)”. The Islamic State was blamed for another January suicide bombing in Istanbul that took the life of 12 German tourists.
The terror group previously claimed responsibility for a vehicle bombing attack on a military convoy in Ankara which killed 28 people.
Jens Stoltenberg said Saturday’s attack was “yet another terrorist outrage targeting innocent civilians and our ally Turkey”.
The latest attack brought widespread condemnation. France condemned it as “despicable and cowardly”.
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Earlier, Reuters quoted an official as saying that initial findings indicated that either the PKK or an affiliate carried out the bombing.
