PKK-affiliated group claims deadly June 7 Istanbul car bomb attack

ISTANBUL

The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK), a group linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and carried out several attacks on civilians and security forces, has claimed a June 7 attack in the Vezneciler neighborhood of Istanbul that claimed 11 lives, six of whom were police officers. 

A suicide bomber detonated a bomb-laden car, targeting a police vehicle in the central Istanbul neighborhood. 

Turkey was hit by another bomb attack on June 8 in the Midyat district of the southeastern Mardin province and that strike was claimed by the PKK. 

TAK also threatened Turkey in its statement, saying that Turkey was “no longer safe” for foreign tourists.
Meanwhile, the image of the suicide bomber was obtained from the security cameras near the scene of the attack in Vezneciler. 

A female suicide bomber is seen with a person who allegedly organized the attack in the footage as they were leaving a parking lot nearby. 

The suicide bomber, who was from Mardin’s Kızıltepe district, is seen walking alone and wearing a headscarf in another image. 

She arrived in Istanbul 20 days before the attack and conducted reconnaissance on the scene, daily Habertürk reported on June 10. 

The person near her is a member of the Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement (YDG-H) and was released from jail in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır two years ago, according to media reports. 

A passenger car was rented from an individual identified as M.B. in the Bağcılar district of Istanbul on May 27. 

The car was immediately taken to Kızıltepe, where around 400 kilograms of plastic explosives were loaded inside. Upon its return, the car was parked in a multistory car park in the Eminönü district near the scene of the attack.

Surveillance footage showed the suspects brought the bomb-laden car to Vezneciler on June 7. 

While one of the suspects left the scene, the suicide bomber waited in the car on the side of the road. As anti-riot police vehicles which were heading to Istanbul University for regular duty began to arrive, she tried to merge in between the two police vehicles. When the driver of the second police vehicle refused to let her in, she merged ahead of the other vehicle before detonating her explosives.