Utibe Ekoson
A Turkish court yesterday ordered the detention of 17 suspects, including a Syrian woman, for alleged links to a bombing that killed six people in central Istanbul.
The government has accused the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party PKK, designated as a terror group by Ankara and its Western allies, for last Sunday’s attack.
The victims included two girls aged nine and 15.
The PKK and its Syrian offshoot YPG have denied involvement. No individual or group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Turkish police captured the chief suspect Alham Albashir a Syrian woman who is said to have been working for Kurdish militants in an Istanbul suburb.
Albashir has reportedly confessed to planting the bomb during her interrogation.
The Istanbul court remanded 17 suspects in pre-trial detention on charges of destroying the state’s unity, deliberate killing and deliberately attempting to murder.
Albashir said she joined the PKK because of her boyfriend’s influence and maintained her ties to the group after she broke up with him.
