Detentions over İstanbul attack rise to 50 including human smugglers
The apartment where the assilant was caught. (Photo: AA/File)
Click to read the article in Turkish (1) (2)
Four more people have been taken into custody over the past day in relation to Sunday's (November 13) bomb attack in İstanbul, bringing the total number of detentions to 50, the justice minister said early today.
Six people were killed and 81 others were injured in the explosion on İstiklal Avenue, a busy pedestrian street in the popular tourist area of Taksim.
The detained people include two human smugglers who are believed to have tried to enable the chief suspect, identified with the initials A.A., to cross into Bulgaria, the state-run Anadolu Agency (AA) reported.
Some workers of the textile workshop where A.A. was working are also among the detainees, according to A.A.
Two suspects identified with the initials A.J. and Y.K. brought the assailant and B., a suspect at large, to Beyoğlu with a car and dropped them off in a place near Taksim Square, the investigation revealed. Y.K. and B later returned to the Esenler district.
A.A. had been detained in an apartment in the Küçükçekmece district.
Proceedings regarding the 50 suspects are underway at the İstanbul Security Directorate.
The directorate said yesterday that the assailant had confessed that he had been trained as a "special intelligence operative" by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), and the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and the People's Defense Units (YPG), which Türkiye sees as PKK affiliates in Syria.
Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu also held the PKK responsible for the attack.
The PKK and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a US-backed group led by the YPG, denied any involvement in the bombing.
More people discharged from treatment
Among the 81 people injured in the attack, 58 have been discharged from treatment, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said today.
Twenty-three people are still at hospitals, with six in intensive care units, he said on Twitter. (VK)