ISTANBUL (SW): At least 38 people, mainly policemen, have been confirmed dead as two bombs exploded less than a minute apart outside a soccer stadium in Istanbul on Saturday night.
First a car bomb exploded outside the Vodafone Arena, home to Istanbul's Besiktas soccer team, leaving flaming wreckage on the street. Forty-five seconds later, a suspect wearing explosives detonated them while surrounded by police in an adjacent park, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus told a news conference.
President Tayyip Erdogan described the blasts as a terrorist attack on police and civilians. He said the aim of the bombings, two hours after the end of a match attended by thousands of people, had been to cause the maximum number of casualties. “Nobody should doubt that with God's will, we as a country and a nation will overcome terror, terrorist organisations… and the forces behind them,” he said in a statement.
Turkey is a member of the Nato military alliance and part of the US-led coalition against IS. It launched a military incursion into Syria in August against IS. It is also fighting a Kurdish militant insurgency in its own southeast, the Reuters reported. According to the reports, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu has said the first explosion, which came around two hours after the end of the match between Besiktas and Bursaspor, was at an assembly point for riot police officers. The second came as police surrounded the suicide bomber in the nearby Macka Park.
Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg condemned what he described as “horrific acts of terror”, while European leaders also sent messages of solidarity. The United States condemned the attack and said it stood with its Nato ally.
According to Dawn news, Istanbul has seen several other attacks this year, including in June, when around 45 people were killed and hundreds wounded as three suspected Islamic State militants carried out a gun and bomb attack on its main Ataturk airport.
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