Suicide bomb attack kills 5
ISTANBUL — A suicide attack on Istanbul’s main pedestrian shopping street Saturday killed five people, including two dual-nationality Israeli Americans and one Iranian citizen, and wounded several dozen others, in the sixth suicide bombing in Turkey in the past year.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but suspicion fell on the Islamic State group and on Kurdish militants who have claimed two recent attacks in the capital, Ankara.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that at least two of the victims were Israelis. An Israeli diplomat in Istanbul said the two also held American citizenship.
A spokesman for the State Department, John Kirby, confirmed that two U.S. citizens, Yonathan Suher and Avraham Goldman, were among those killed.
The explosion ripped through Istiklal Street, a popular destination for tourists and locals in a central neighborhood that is home to cafes, restaurants, foreign consulates and a government office.
“Turkey has always said that terrorism has no religion, no language and no race and that terrorism has to be condemned no matter who the perpetrators are,” said Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. “This sad event has shown once again how right our position is.”
An interior ministry official said the death toll included the suicide bomber.
Police swiftly sealed off the area as ambulances and a forensic team rushed to the scene after the bombing about 11 a.m. Normally packed cafes were either closed or virtually empty, with business owners making frantic calls to loved ones to assure them of their safety. The site remained off limits until shortly after sundown when tentative pedestrians and shopkeepers returned to inspect the damage.
Turkey was already on edge following two recent suicide car bomb attacks in the capital, Ankara, which were claimed by a Kurdish militant group. The most recent bombing attack, on March 13, killed 37 people including two bombers.