Kurdish group claims responsibility for blast
A Kurdish militant group claimed responsibility Sunday for a double bombing that killed 39 people and wounded 154 outside a soccer stadium in the heart of Istanbul the night before.
The group — Kurdistan Freedom Falcons, or TAK — said in a statement that two of its members had carried out the suicide attacks in retaliation for state violence in the predominantly Kurdish region in southeast Turkey. The group also cited the continuing imprisonment of Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has waged a three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state.
The Kurdish Freedom Falcons, which claimed responsibility in June for a car bombing in Istanbul that killed at least 11 people, is considered an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim had blamed the PKK for the twin bombings Saturday night.
Turkish officials said the two suicide attacks were carried out near to the Vodafone Arena stadium. One of them included the detonation of nearly 450 kilograms of explosives in a vehicle, and the other was caused by a suicide bomber who targeted police officers after a soccer game.
At least 30 officers, eight civilians and one unidentified person were killed in the attacks, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said Sunday.
The government declared a national day of mourning Sunday, and top Turkish officials, including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, attended funeral services held at Istanbul’s Police Headquarters.
“They should know that they would not get away with this; they will pay heavier prices,” Erdogan said after visiting the wounded. “They attacked vilely, perfidiously at two spots against those young lions, who were preparing to get on their buses.”
So far, authorities have detained 13 people in connection with the attacks, the Istanbul chief prosecutor’s office said.