ANKARA, Nov 15(ABC): Istanbul police said on Monday it had detained 46 people in relation to an attack at the heart of the city, including Syrian woman Ahlam Albashir who is suspected to have planted the bomb.
In initial questioning, the woman said she was trained by Kurdish militants in Syria and entered Turkey through northwest Syria’s Afrin region, the police said.
State broadcaster TRT released footage of police escorting a woman, the main suspect, from an apartment after an overnight raid.
Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, which Ankara says is a wing of the PKK, were responsible for the attack on the historic and bustling Istiklal Avenue on Sunday.
Soylu said the order was given in Kobani and the bomber passed through Afrin — both cities in northern Syria where Turkish forces have carried out operations against the YPG in recent years.
The woman, with curly hair and in a purple jumper with the words ‘New York’ on it, was shown being brought into police headquarters in the TRT footage. Police used a dog to search the apartment and found gold, money and ammunition, it showed.
Six Turkish citizens, two members each of three families, were killed in the attack. No group has claimed responsibility.
Hundreds of people fled after the blast on Istiklal Avenue, a popular spot for shoppers and tourists with a tramline running its length. The area, in the Beyoglu district of Turkey’s largest city, had been crowded as usual at the weekend.