Europe

Home page

Europe

Bomber in Istanbul attack came from Syria: Turkish foreign minister

14 December 2016 22:01 (UTC +04:00)

One of the two suicide bombers in an attack on an Istanbul soccer stadium last weekend had come from Syria, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Wednesday, APA reports quoting Reuters.

The twin attacks in Istanbul on Saturday - involving a suicide bomber on foot and another in a car - killed 44 people, mostly policemen, outside Besiktas soccer stadium, and injured more than 150.

Earlier this week, Turkish police carried out a series of raids and detained 568 people over alleged links to Kurdish militants, intensifying a crackdown after the bombings.

An offshoot of the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) claimed responsibility for the attacks on Saturday night.

"We are always telling our counterparts that we are receiving this threat. And now, we see that the Besiktas bomber also came from Syria," Cavusoglu told TGRT TV in an interview.