Police put on alert over bombs across Istanbul

ISTANBUL

DHA Photo

Police across Istanbul were on alert Jan. 18 after explosives were left around the city, with some of the would-be attacks committed in response to the clashes in southeast Turkey.

A cardboard box left on an Atatürk statue in the Maltepe district on the Asian side of the city was discovered, and security teams and a bomb squad were immediately dispatched to the scene after citizens called police. There was reportedly writing on the box saying those responsible for the Cizre incidents would be held accountable.

After the bomb squad defused the suspicious box amid high-security measures, police determined the device was a handmade pressure-induced grenade made from lighter fluid cylinders and containing fuel. The bomb pieces were taken by police for further investigation.

Another bomb exploded near an electric distribution unit on Millet Avenue in the Fatih district. No casualties were reported and police have launched an investigation into the incident.

In the Sultangazi district, another bomb was found in a package left by two masked people at a bus stop.  Police arrived at the scene and cordoned off the area after they had been notified of the package by citizens.

“YDG-H,” was written on the package, which refers to the Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement, the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s (PKK) so-called police unit.

The bomb was defused by the bomb squad.

Another bomb alarm was given in Istanbul’s Kasımpaşa neighborhood. Three people who were being chased by police threw two bags onto the street before firing gunshots at police officers. Police captured three suspects while a bomb disposal team was called to the scene for the two bags.

Meanwhile, a Twitter account purportedly from the YDG-H, the youth wing of the outlawed PKK, wrote that they had left bombs in seven locations in Istanbul. The group said they left the bombs across the city “to take revenge for the Cizre massacres,” referring to the deaths of teenagers during unrest in Cizre in the southeastern province of Şırnak. The group also tweeted that they had left bombs in the Alibeyköy, Mecidiyeköy and Bayrampaşa areas of the city, although there were no reports of bombs in the area.