ISTANBUL – A suicide attack on Istanbul’s main pedestrian shopping street Saturday killed five people, including two Israelis and one Iranian citizen, in the sixth suicide bombing in Turkey in the past year.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu issued a statement saying there were several foreigners among the victims.
“Turkey has always said that terrorism has no religion, no language and no race and that terrorism has to be condemned no matter who the perpetrators are,” he said. “This sad event has shown once again how right our position is.”
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but suspicion fell on the Islamic State group and on Kurdish militants who have claimed two recent attacks in Ankara.
The explosion ripped through Istiklal Street, a popular destination for tourists and locals in a central neighborhood that is home to cafes, restaurants, foreign consulates and a government office. Istanbul Gov. Vasip Sahin said there were five fatalities and that investigations were still underway.
Police swiftly sealed off the area as ambulances and a forensic team rushed to the scene after the bombing about 11 a.m. Normally packed cafes were either closed or virtually empty, with business owners making frantic calls to loved ones to assure them of their safety. Rattled tourists wondered where to go.
“It was one loud explosion,” said Muhammed Fatur, a Syrian who works at a butcher shop near the scene of the explosion. “Police came to the scene and sealed off the area.” The site remained off limits until shortly after sundown when tentative pedestrians and shopkeepers returned to inspect the damage.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that at least two of the victims were Israelis.
“We can sadly confirm that two Israeli civilians were killed and we might have a third fatality,” he said.
Israel was cooperating with other intelligence agencies to determine whether the attack was directed at Israelis specifically.
The majority of the Israelis caught up in the attack were on a culinary tour of the city, officials said.
The group had just eaten breakfast nearby when the blast ripped through the street. Israeli media named one of the victims as 60-year-old Simha Dimri, a mother of four. Her husband was wounded in the attack, according to reports.
A group of Iranian tourists were also among the victims. Alireza Razmkhah, 45, was killed and his wife, Azan, and baby, Diana, were injured, according to IRNA, the official Iranian news agency. An elderly woman was also wounded in the attack, but was in stable condition, the agency reported.
The attack coincided with a visit from Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. He condemned the “inhumane” act and offered his condolences to Turkey.
Turkey’s health minister, Mehmet Muezzinoglu, said the 36 people wounded included six Israelis, two Irish citizens and one person each from Iceland, Germany, Dubai and Iran. Istanbul’s governor later raised the number of injured to 39 and said 24 of them were foreigners, without providing a breakdown by nationalities.
