ISTANBUL, Turkey — Two bombs exploded within minutes of each other late Sunday in a crowded pedestrian area of Istanbul, killing at least 15 people and wounding more than 100 in what the city’s governor called a terrorist attack.
The double bombing appeared to be the worst incident of terrorist violence in Turkey in nearly five years and seemed to take the Turkish authorities completely by surprise. There were no immediate claims of responsibility, although Kurdish separatist militants were initially suspected. The Istanbul neighborhood that was targeted, which is almost completely residential, had no obvious reason to be the object of a terrorism plot.
The first blast, which the police and witnesses said was relatively minor, attracted scores of onlookers curious about the commotion, with at least some of them thinking it was caused by a gas leak explosion. Many of the curious onlookers were hit by flying shrapnel and debris from the second, more powerful blast about 10 minutes later and about 20 yards away, the governor, Muammer Guler, said in a news briefing carried on Turkish television.
Witnesses described a scene of panic with victims lying on the street in pools of blood. The timing of the bombings appeared to deliberately coincide with the summer pastime of many residents of the pedestrian area of Gungoren, in central Istanbul, to stroll in the cool late evening before going to bed.
“It’s surely a terror attack, there’s no doubt,” Governor Guler said. “Because people were gathered after the first explosion, and because the second explosion happened right after, people sitting right across got severely injured.”
Senol Simsek, a witness who provided first-aid to the injured, told the NTV television network that he saw at least five people lying and writhing near a telephone booth that was completely destroyed. Police quickly sealed off the entire area and closed it to all traffic.
Hayati Yazici, deputy prime minister who happened to be visiting Istanbul on Sunday, visited the bombing site and told the Anatolian News Agency: “It is obvious that this is the work of a villain organization, a person or people, however it is not certain as to who this is. Our friends are investigating, it will be discovered for sure.”
The double-bombing appeared to be the most serious terrorism attack here since twin truck bombings at two Istanbul synagogues killed 23 people and wounded more than 300 on Nov. 15, 2003. An obscure group linked to Al Qaeda took responsibility for the synagogue blasts, which were the worst in a series of explosions blamed on Islamic extremist groups that year that killed more than 60 people.
President Abdullah Gul, in a written statement, denounced the attack here Sunday and said Turkey remains committed in what he called the struggle against terror. “Nothing can be achieved by terror, violently claiming lives of the innocent,” Mr. Gul said. “These attacks show the inhumanity and misery of the assailants.”
Officials were continuing investigations and analysis at both explosion sites to determine the precise cause and motives behind the attack, Turkish news outlets reported.
There was initial speculation that the bombings might be the work of the PKK or Kurdish Workers’ Party, in insurgent group that has been fighting the Turkish army for autonomy in the southeast area of the country adjoining Iraq. In recent weeks the military has periodically announced anti-PKK operations near the border and northern Iraq, which the Turks say is used by PKK insurgents as a refuge.
Earlier Sunday, the Turkish military announced that its fighter jets had attacked 12 Kurdish separatest targets in Iraq’s Qandil region and that it had inflicted an unspecified number of “terrorist casualties.”
Source: New York Times, July 28, 2008
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