Turkey: Islamic State bomber kills 10 in Istanbul
A suicide bomb blast linked to the Islamic State ripped through a popular tourist area of Istanbul on Tuesday, killing 10 people and injuring 15 others, Turkish authorities said.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu blamed the Islamic State.
"This incident has shown once again that we have to stand in full unity against terror," President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said, according to the Hurriyet Daily News. "Turkey is resolute and its principled position will continue. It makes no difference to us what their names and abbreviations are."
In Washington, the White House condemned the "heinous attack" and promised continued support in the fight against terrorism. "We stand together with Turkey, a NATO ally, a strong partner, and a valued member of the counter-ISIL coalition, in the face of this attack," the statement said, using an acronym for the militants.
The blast took place at about 10:15 a.m. local time in Sultanahmet Square in Istanbul's Fatih district. The area is home to the historic Blue Mosque, the Topkapi Palace and the Hagia Sophia museum.
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Eight of the dead were German, as were most of the wounded, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier confirmed to Germany's DPA news agency. A Peruvian national also was killed. It was unclear whether the bomber was included in the death toll.
"International terrorism has shown its ugly face," said German Chancellor Angela Merkel. "We need to act decisively against it."
The attack represents a shift in strategy for the Islamic State, said Firas Abi Ali, Middle East forecaster for the research firm IHS. Previous attacks in Turkey have focused on Kurds and their political allies, not Western tourists, he said.
"The Islamic State most likely has the capability to launch an extended terrorist campaign inside Turkey," he said. "This would, however, put its current relative freedom of movement across Turkey and into Syria and Iraq at risk."
Turkey has been a transit point for Islamic State sympathizers from around the world to enter Syria. The Turkish government also has struggled to control millions of migrants fleeing Syria and Iraq who use Turkey as their entry point to Europe.
Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş initially said the bomber was a Syrian national, but later said the attacker recently arrived from Syria. Dogan News Agency was among multiple Turkish media organizations reporting the bomber was born in Saudi Arabia.
Jens Stoltenberg, NATO secretary general, condemned the attack and extended condolences to the victims and their families. "There can be no justification for such attacks," he said. "All NATO allies stand united in the fight against all forms of terrorism."
Anne Brasseur, president of the Europe's Parliamentary Assembly, tweeted: "I strongly condemn terrorist attack in Istanbul. Turkey has our support, and my thoughts are with the families of victims."
Turkey has been the target of deadly attacks at least three other times since June. In October, two suicide bombs at a peace rally killed more than 100 people in Turkey's capital Ankara. In July, more than 30 people died in a suicide attack near the country's border with Syria. In June, four people were killed and 100 wounded in a blast at a political rally in Diyarbakir.
The Islamic State either claimed responsibility or was blamed for all those attacks.
Tuesday's explosion was strong enough to be heard in other areas of the city. Erdem Koroglu, who was working at a nearby office, told NTV television he saw several people on the ground after the blast, the Associated Press reported.
“It was difficult to say who was alive or dead,” Koroglu said. “Buildings rattled from the force of the explosion.”
