Turkey has arrested up to 50 people in connection with the bombing attack on Istiklal Avenue, a popular pedestrian mall in downtown Istanbul, on Sunday afternoon that left at least 6 dead and more than 80 injured. Police carried out raids in Istanbul several hours after the blast and made most of the arrests then.
The area, which is popular with tourists, was full of families and shoppers at the time of the blast. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a televised address that the attack “smells like terrorism.” No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
The main suspect in the bombing, a Syrian national identified as Alham Albashir, was arrested soon after the explosion. The Istanbul Police Department says she carried out the attack on orders of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Syrian armed organization that Turkey says is a branch of the PKK, the People’s Protection Units (YPG). Turkey considers both to be illegal terrorist organizations. The police said Sunday that Albashir admitted during questioning that she was trained by Kurdish militants and entered Turkey through Afrin, another northern Syrian town.
The same avenue was the target of an Islamic State suicide attack in 2016 that killed five people and wounded 36.