Bomb kills six in Istanbul, suspect detained

Turkish police said Monday that they detained a Syrian woman who confessed to planting a bomb that exploded Sunday in a pedestrian center in Istanbul. The bomb killed six people and injured more than 80. The suspect allegedly left TNT-type explosives on the crowded avenue and then caught a taxi, police said, based on security footage.

Who is the suspect? Police identified the suspect as Ahlam Albashir. Police said the suspect told them during her interrogation that she had been trained as a “special intelligence officer” by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, as well as the Syrian Kurdish group the Democratic Union Party and its armed wing. The Kurdistan Workers’ Party is outlawed in Turkey and is considered a terrorist group. Albashir said she entered the country illegally through a Syrian border town, according to the police. Both the Kurdistan Workers’ Party and a Kurdish militia group called the People’s Defense Units denied any links to the suspect.

Dig deeper: From the WORLD archives, read Mindy Belz’s report in WORLD Magazine on the start of Turkey’s offensive in Syria in 2019.