A Kurdish splinter group, the Freedom Falcons of Kurdistan (TAK), claimed a mortar attack on Istanbul’s second worldwide airport on December 23 which killed a female cleaner and damaged several planes.
Advertisement
The city’s Sultanahmet Square was swarming with security forces and ambulances in the aftermath of the blast.
The blast occurred in a square significant to Turkey’s history and its diverse cultural identity.
This image from video shows medics and security members with injured people lying on the ground after an explosion at Istanbul’s historic Sultanahmet district, which is popular with tourists, on Tuesday, January 12, 2016.
A senior Turkish government official says at least nine of the 10 people who died in Tuesday’s suicide bombing in Istanbul’s historic district were German nationals.
While the breakdown of victims wasn’t clear around midday, what happened was enough to spur Merkel’s foreign ministry to issue a travel warning for Turkey, which is a popular destination for German tourists.
The private Dogan news agency says at least two people were hospitalized following an explosion in the historic center of Istanbul.
Germany and Denmark have warned their citizens to avoid crowds outside tourist attractions in Istanbul.
The explosion could be heard in nearby areas, witnesses told the AFP news agency.
“It was very violent”.
Ankara has persistently battled the PKK, which the United States and other governments have branded a terror group.
ISIS and the Kurdish group the PKK have been mentioned in recent outbreaks of violence.
Turkey has also become a target for IS, with two bombings a year ago blamed on the radical Sunni Muslim group, in the town of Suruc near the Syrian border and in the capital Ankara, the latter killing more than 100 people.
“This does seems to be an attack of some kind”, said Sajjan Gohel, the worldwide security director at the Asia Pacific Foundation. It said 10 people were killed and 15 wounded but gave no further details.
Advertisement
“An attack like this is designed to create economic, political and social consequences”, Gohel told CNN.
