At least ten people, mostly foreign, were killed and 15 wounded Tuesday in a suicide attack in the Sultanahmet district , the most touristic Istanbul, attributed by the government to a man of Syrian origin of the extremist militia Islamic State (EI) .
amid the initial confusion and while government officials reported at first anonymously to the press that all those killed were German citizens, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu confirmed that they are all foreigners, without providing further details.
Soon then from Berlin Minister German Foreign Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said eight of the dead were Germans, while its counterpart in Peru, Ana Maria Sanchez, identified a wound Peruvian Daniela Bisan but not yet confirmed whether between ten dead are a Peruvian, as reported initially.
Consequently, by the time the nationality of two deaths is unknown.
Among the 15 wounded are nine Germans, some of them in serious condition, and a Peruvian, who lives in Istanbul, who is hospitalized with mild prognosis.
the Turkish premier Davutoglu also told reporters that the attacker was a member of EI, the militia was born to resist the US occupation in Iraq and neighboring Syria grew up in the heat of civil war, while his number two, Numan Kurtulmus, said the assailant was a man born in Syria in 1988.
by his , the Turkish news agency Dogan, quoting unnamed police sources, said that the attacker was called Nabil Fadli and that would have been born in Saudi Arabia.
"This is one of the most barbaric examples of actions terrorist EI organization, "Davutoglu comparing crime with the recent attacks in Paris and other suicide attacks against civilians on Turkish soil in 2015.
said," it's not just an attack against those who were there but against throughout Turkey, "said the Prime Minister.
in the commotion that caused the attack, the first official who spoke publicly was the president of the nation, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Shortly after the explosion, the president spoke on television where he said that the Eurasian country "is the first objective of all terrorist organizations operating in the region because Turkey combating decisively" and said that the evidence suggests that the author of the attack " it is a suicide bomber Syrian origin. "
Since the beginning of the civil war in Syria, in 2011, about two million refugees crossed the border with Turkey.
While in the first years massive refugee camps were built in the Turkish territory during 2015 hundreds of thousands of people, including Syrians, used the country as a transit point to the European Union (EU).
the explosion not claimed so far by any group, it occurred shortly after 10 am local (5 Argentina) in the ancient near the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque hippodrome, the two most visited city, monuments agency reported EFE news.
Photographs by local media showed several dismembered bodies lying on the stone floor of the concourse.
amid a flurry of rumors, police sources told the local newspaper Hurriyet Daily news that was "highly possible" that the Islamist group radical EI is behind the attack.
Unconfirmed this information, the Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, called for an emergency meeting of his government in Ankara to discuss the situation and the reaction of the national political spectrum did not wait.
the Popular Democratic Party (HDP), leftist and pro-Kurdish, described the attack as "brutal slaughter" and sent condolences to the families of the victims lost their lives.
Meanwhile, the ruling Justice and Development party (AKP) published a twit through his spokesman Omer Celik in which he described the attack as "vile."
the attack undoubtedly sought hit tourism.
the mosque and nearby monuments such as the Hagia Sophia and Topkapi palace, are the tourist resort of Istanbul, a city that receives every year nearly 10 million travelers.
the president of the Tourism Association told the newspaper Hurriyet Sultanahmet the likely attack "is a big blow to tourism throughout the region."
"There are 7,000 hotels in this area. Tourists now want to leave. They are already looking for tickets (to return to their countries). With this explosion, the year 2016 ended for us. "
Hours after the attack, police launched a major raid in Sanliurfa, a city in southeast Turkey is considered rear of numerous armed groups in Syria , including EI, reported the semi-public agency Anadolu.
in a simultaneous raid on 22 homes and hangouts, the officers arrested 21 people suspected of raising funds and provisions for those who intend to go to Syria to join the ranks of EI
also in Ankara there were several arrests, passing custody a suspected jihadist links Turkish citizen, while 15 Syrians were handed over to the authorities to accelerate their expulsion.
One hour after the explosion, the Turkish government banned the media distribute related to the attack videos and photos.
Turkey lives in a virtual state of alert since twin suicide bombings that caused 103 dead 10 October at the train station in Ankara that the authorities attributed to EI.
on January 6, 2015, a woman blew himself up at the gates of the police station of the Tourist Police in Sultanahmet, and seriously wounded two agents, one of whom later died. The author of the attack was identified as Diana Ramazova, a Russian citizen from the Caucasus region of Dagestan, identified by Russia as a person linked to Al Qaeda and EI.
Five months later, a bomb killed four people at a rally of the pro-Kurdish party HDP in Diyarbakir and a month and a half later, a suicide bomber blew himself up in an act of leftist forces in favor of the Kurds in Syria in the southeastern town of Suruç. The balance was 33 fatalities.
Finally, on October 10, two suspected militants EI blew themselves up in a peace march in the Turkish capital, Ankara, and killed more than 100 people, one of the worst attacks in the history of Turkey in decades.
Source: Telam