Turkey on Monday rejected US condolences for the deaths of six people in a bomb attack in Istanbul that Ankara blamed on a Kurdish militant group.
“We do not accept the American embassy’s message of condolence. We reject it,” Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu was quoted as saying in televised comments.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre issued a statement Sunday, saying, “The United States strongly condemns the act of violence that occurred today in Istanbul, Turkey.”
Otherwise, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan often accuses Washington of supplying weapons to Kurdish fighters in northern Syria, described as “terrorists” by Ankara.
Meanwhile, a Turkish official declined to comment on reports of US-Russia talks in Turkey on Monday, but said Ankara was working with several countries against terrorism, including those on Sunday’s bombing in Istanbul.
Ankara blamed Sunday’s attack in Istanbul on Kurdish militants, against whom it has conducted several operations in northern Syria.
The Istanbul Police Department has issued a statement about the bomb attack that occurred on Sunday, 13.11.2022 on Taksim Istiklal Street in the Beyoğlu neighborhood of Istanbul.
In this regard, speaking about the identity of the suspect, it has been said that in the operation carried out at the specified address at 02.50, the Syrian citizen Ahlam Albashir, who is supposed to have committed the act, was captured alive.
Authorities said six people were killed and 81 wounded in Sunday’s blast on Istiklal Avenue, a famous street lined with shops and restaurants that leads to the iconic Taksim Square.
Five people injured in the terrorist attack in Istanbul are in intensive care, two of them in serious condition, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Monday.