İstanbul bombing: Attacker says her brother an ‘FSA commander,’ four arrested in Bulgaria

Photo: AA

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• More details about Ahlam Albashir's statement have surfaced

• Mobile phone messages revealed the Jarkas brothers not only transported the suspects but were also involved in the attack

• Two more suspects who helped the attacker and her accomplice cross into Türkiye have been arrested

• Four more suspects, one from Syria and three from Moldova, have been arrested in Bulgaria

The woman who carried out the November 13 bombing in İstanbul said in her interrogation that her brother is a commander of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), an armed group allied with Türkiye, the Sabah newspaper reported.

Six people were killed and 81 others were wounded in the attack on İstiklal Avenue, a busy pedestrian street in the popular tourist area of Taksim.

"My elder brother, Muhammed, is a high-level commander in the Free Syrian Army. Muhammed was wounded in an ISIS attack and has prosthetics on both legs," she told the prosecutors, according to Sabah.

Because of that, she said, members of the People's Protection Units (YPG), a Kurdish armed group that Türkiye holds responsible for the attack, had arrested her in the Manbij city for "being an FSA spy."

"In 2017, we went to Manbij, which is under the YPG's control. There, we became lovers with Ahmet A. [an alleged YPG member]. We broke up after two months. For two months, he didn't ask me to do anything for the YPG.

"High-level YPG executives in Manbij arrested me for spying against them. I stayed in a prison in Manbij for a month. After leaving the prison, they called me saying, 'You'll meet Hacı.' Hacı was a high-level executive. The first time, I was blindfolded. I didn't see [him]. They said, 'You are working for the FSA.'

"A couple of weeks later, they brought me to Hacı again. This time, my eyes were open. He had a tattoo on a visible part of his body. They threatened me, saying, 'You are spying for the FSA. Your family will be harmed'."

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Albashir said Hacı later introduced him to Bilal Hassan, who crossed into Türkiye together with her in July, and is believed to have escaped to Bulgaria after the bombing. The two disguised themselves as a married couple and worked at a small textile business in the Esenler district for four months before carrying out the attack.

"After [Bilal] attempted to rape me, I left home. Hacı threatened me, saying, 'Do whatever Bilal wants, otherwise, your brother and sister will be harmed.'And I returned to Bilal. At the request of Hacı and Bilal, I went to Taksim a few times. Bilal had asked me, 'Are there a lot of police officers in Taksim'?"

Previously revealed parts of Albashir's statement included her account of how she and Hassan went to Taksim on the day of the attack and how she planted the bomb while Hassan left the district earlier.

The Jarkas brothers

Ahmed Jarkas and Ammar Jarkas, two brothers with a criminal record for human smuggling, helped Albashir and Hassan leave Taksim, the police found earlier. Both brothers are currently under arrest.

Albashir went to Esenler after the attack. Ahmad Jarkas then drove her to an apartment in Küçükçekmece, where she was going to stay before fleeing to Europe. Both Jarkas and Albashir were nabbed in a police raid on that apartment about eight hours after the explosion.

Ammar Jarkas, meanwhile, transported Hassan to the border city of Edirne. He then crossed into Bulgaria with the help of another suspect, Hüseyin Güneş, who is also under arrest.

The examination of Ammar Jarkas's mobile phone by the anti-terror police revealed that he did not only transport the suspect but was also involved in the attack.

After the explosion, Ammar Jarkas sent a message to her sister on WhatsApp, where he said, "Make [Albashir] take off those clothes she is wearing, put them in a nylon bag."

It was also identified that Ammar Jarkas sent someone called Halil M. a photo of Albashir while she was running away and wrote, "This is her." Halil M. replied, "Inform me."

Anadolu Agency reported, based on Security sources, that the communications in his phone were evaluated as evidence that Ammar Jarkas knew about the explosion beforehand and that he helped Albashir.

The two brothers previously denied human smuggling allegations and said they were only unlicensed taxi drivers.

Two more arrests

Among the eight people who were detained for helping Albashir and Hassan cross into Türkiye have been remanded in custody.

Following their statements at the prosecutor's office, a penal judgeship of peace ordered the arrest of Tareq A. and Süleyman G. for "disrupting the unity of the state and the integrity of the country," "premeditated murder" and "migrant smuggling."

The court ruling referred to the statements of suspect Tareq A. saying that he had taken the assailant Albashir and Hassan from Antakya in the border province Hatay to Ceyhan, Adana, with a vehicle. Süleyman G. had offered him this job and had escorted him, he said.

Four people arrested in Bulgaria

The proceedings of the suspect codenamed "Hüsam" being accused of aiding and abetting the attack continue at the Security Directorate. The suspect was nabbed in Azaz, Syria, and brought to İstanbul after the explosion.

Meanwhile, Amran Abdulrami from Syria who is believed to have aided the fugitive suspect Hassan and three other suspects from Moldova were detained in Bulgaria. The Sofia City Court ruled that they should be remanded in custody since they entered the country illegally and on suspicion that they were involved in human smuggling.

Seventeen out of the 49 suspects including Ahlam Albashir whose statements were taken by 29 prosecutors has been arrested on charges of "disrupting the unity of the state and integrity of the country," "wilful murder," "attempting wilful murder," "aiding wilful murder" while 29 suspects were deported. (AS/VK/PE)