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| The Grand Turk | |
| 15 detained in connection to Bursa suicide attack | |
| 2016-04-29 | |
| A total of 15 suspects have been detained in four different Turkish provinces in relation to the suicide bomb attack that struck the Marmara province of Bursa on April 28. A female suicide bomber detonated herself at around 5:25 p.m. near Ulu Cami, a mosque at the center of the province, on April 27, leaving 13 people wounded. “The investigation into the identity of the suicide bomber is ongoing. We are almost certain on the terror group that she has relations with, but I won’t reveal it until it’s certain,” Interior Minister Efkan Ala told journalists in Bursa on April 28, while adding that more detentions may follow in the coming days. “We won’t share the details yet. Turkey is engaged in a serious struggle with terrorism and alliances of terrorists,” Ala said. The five provinces where detentions were made by police include Bursa, Istanbul, the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa, and the western province of Afyonkarahisar. Meanwhile, officials were unable to identify the suicide bomber from her fingerprints and will conduct a DNA test, as the investigation into the attack was ongoing. The suicide bomber arrived in Bursa from Şanlıurfa via bus on April 24 with a ticket that she had bought under the fake name “Sultan” and stayed with the detained suspects, reported Anadolu Agency. The suicide bomber was seen in video footage recorded by a security camera at the terminal. She traveled to the scene of the attack via taxi, while in a location close to Bursa she obtained the bomb, which was thought to have been made of ammonium nitrate, according to reports. The woman may have panicked after seeing police officers and detonated the bomb, the officials told Anadolu Agency.
There was no fingerprint evidence available from the remains of the woman who blew herself up in front of a mosque in the former Ottoman capital of Bursa on Wednesday but she has now been identified after DNA testing, the Hurriyet daily said. The woman has been identified as Suzan B., who the report said is a member of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which has been fighting the Turkish security forces since a truce collapsed last summer. It said she had also spent time in Syria fighting with the Kurdish Peoples' Protection Units (YPG) militia against Islamic State (IS) jihadists and had crossed back into Turkey in April. This fits the narrative of the Turkish government that the YPG is the Syrian branch of the PKK, an assertion disputed by Washington which works with the Syrian Kurdish militia as allies in the fight against IS. Hurriyet quoted its sources as saying the woman had fought against IS in the battle for the Syrian border town of Kobane which was won by the Kurdish militia last year. The Turkish authorities have detained 15 people in the wake of the bombing, which created new jitters in the country after a wave of deadly attacks this year. Thirteen people were wounded in the blast but no one else was killed, leading some commentators to conclude the bomber ignited her charge prematurely. Those detained include two women whose identity cards the bomber had taken and one of her friends. Hurriyet said the bomber's identity was confirmed after DNA samples were taken from her family in the Mardin region of southeast Turkey. | |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #1 Exploding Bursas? Ewww. (That Turkey has a province of Pustule seems appropriate.) |
| Posted by: JHH 2016-04-29 12:57 |