Tag: istanbul
Islamic State Prime Suspect After Suicide Bombers Kill 41 At Istanbul Airport

Islamic State Prime Suspect After Suicide Bombers Kill 41 At Istanbul Airport

Turkish investigators pored over video footage and witness statements on Wednesday after three suspected Islamic State suicide bombers opened fire and blew themselves up in Istanbul’s main airport, killing 41 people and wounding 239.

The attack on Europe’s third-busiest airport was the deadliest in a series of suicide bombings this year in Turkey, part of the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State and struggling to contain spillover from neighboring Syria’s war.

President Tayyip Erdogan said the attack should serve as a turning point in the global fight against terrorism, which he said had “no regard for faith or values”.

Five Saudis and two Iraqis were among the dead, a Turkish official said. Citizens from China, Jordan, Tunisia, Uzbekistan, Iran and Ukraine were also among the 13 foreigners killed.

One attacker opened fire in the departures hall with an automatic rifle, sending passengers diving for cover and trying to flee, before all three blew themselves up in or around the arrivals hall a floor below, witnesses and officials said.

Video footage showed one of the attackers inside the terminal building being shot, apparently by a police officer, before falling to the ground as people scattered. The attacker then blew himself up around 20 seconds later.

“It’s a jigsaw puzzle … The authorities are going through CCTV footage, witness statements,” a Turkish official said.

The Dogan news agency said autopsies on the three bombers, whose torsos were ripped apart, had been completed and that they may have been foreign nationals, without citing its sources.

Broken ceiling panels littered the kerb outside the arrivals section of the international terminal. Plates of glass had shattered, exposing the inside of the building, and electric cables dangled from the ceiling. Cleanup crews swept up debris and armed police patrolled as flights resumed.

“This attack, targeting innocent people is a vile, planned terrorist act,” Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told reporters at the scene in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

“There is initial evidence that each of the three suicide bombers blew themselves up after opening fire,” he said. The attackers had come to the airport by taxi and preliminary findings pointed to Islamic State responsibility.

Two U.S. counterterrorism officials familiar with the early stages of investigations said Islamic State was at the top of the list of suspects even though there was no evidence yet.

No group had claimed responsibility more than 12 hours after the attack, which began around 9:50 p.m. (1850 GMT) on Tuesday.

 

VICTIMS OF MANY NATIONALITIES

Istanbul’s position bridging Europe and Asia has made Ataturk airport, Turkey’s largest, a major transit hub for passengers across the world. The Istanbul governor’s office said 109 of the 239 people hospitalized had since been discharged.

“There were little babies crying, people shouting, broken glass and blood all over the floor. It was very crowded, there was chaos. It was traumatic,” said Diana Eltner, 29, a Swiss psychologist who was traveling from Zurich to Vietnam but had been diverted to Istanbul after she missed a connection.

Delayed travelers were sleeping on floors at the airport, a Reuters witness said, as some passengers and airport staff cried and hugged each other. Police in kevlar vests with automatic weapons prowled the kerbside as a handful of travelers and Turkish Airlines crew trickled in.

The national carrier said it had canceled 340 flights although its departures resumed after 8:00 am (0500 GMT).

Paul Roos, 77, a South African tourist on his way home, said he saw one of the attackers “randomly shooting” in the departures hall from about 50 meters (55 yards) away.

“He was wearing all black. His face was not masked … We ducked behind a counter but I stood up and watched him. Two explosions went off shortly after one another. By that time he had stopped shooting,” Roos told Reuters.

“He turned around and started coming towards us. He was holding his gun inside his jacket. He looked around anxiously to see if anyone was going to stop him and then went down the escalator … We heard some more gunfire and then another explosion, and then it was over.”

 

AIM TO MAXIMIZE FEAR

The attack bore similarities to a suicide bombing by Islamic State militants at Brussels airport in March that killed 16 people. A coordinated attack also targeted a rush-hour metro train, killing a further 16 people in the Belgian capital.

Islamic State militants also claimed gun and bomb attacks that killed 129 people in Paris last November

“In Istanbul they used a combination of the methods employed in Paris and Brussels. They planned a murder that would maximize fear and loss of life,” said Suleyman Ozeren, a terrorism expert at the Ankara-based Global Policy and Strategy Institute.

Turkey needs to work harder on “preventative intelligence” to stop militants being radicalized in the first place, he said.

The two U.S. officials said the Istanbul bombing was more typical of Islamic State than of Kurdish militant groups which have also carried out recent attacks in Turkey, but usually strike at official government targets.

Yildirim said it was significant that the attack took place when Turkey was having successes in fighting terrorist groups and mending ties with some of its international partners.

Turkey announced the restoration of diplomatic ties with Israel on Monday after a six-year rupture and has been trying to restore relations with Russia, a major backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

One of the U.S. officials said there had been a “marked increase” in encrypted Islamic State propaganda and communications on the dark web, which some American officials interpret as an effort to direct or inspire more attacks outside its home turf to offset its recent losses on the ground.

Both officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the probe, which they said is being led by Turkish officials with what they called intelligence support from the United States and other NATO allies.

 

(Additional reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt, Can Sezer, Humeyra Pamuk in Istanbul, Ercan Gurses in Ankara, John Walcott in Washington, Pavel Polityuk in Kiev, Bozorgmehr Sharafedin and Sami Aboudi in Dubai, Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza; Writing by Nick Tattersall; editing by Philippa Fletcher, Janet McBride)

Photo: An injured woman covers her face as she is carried by paramedics into ambulance at Istanbul Ataturk airport, Turkey, following a blast June 28, 2016. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic

Turkey Sees Islamic State Hand In Bombing, Vows Election Will Go On

Turkey Sees Islamic State Hand In Bombing, Vows Election Will Go On

By Orhan Coskun and Ece Toksabay

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey is targeting Islamic State in investigations of a double suicide bombing in Ankara that killed up to 128 people, officials said on Sunday, while opponents of President Tayyip Erdogan blamed him for the worst such attack in Turkish history.

Government officials made clear that despite alarm over the attack on a rally of pro-Kurdish activists and civic groups, there would be no postponement of November polls Erdogan hopes can restore an overall majority for the AK Party he founded.

Thousands of people gathered near the scene of the attack at Ankara’s main railway station, many accusing Erdogan of stirring nationalist sentiment by his pursuit of a military campaign against Kurdish militants, a charge Ankara vehemently rejects.

“Murderer Erdogan”, “murderer police”, the crowd chanted in Sihhiye square, as riot police backed by water cannon vehicles blocked a main highway leading to the district where parliament and government buildings are located.

The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), a major presence at Saturday’s march and holding seats in parliament, said police attacked its leaders and members as they tried to leave carnations at the scene. Some were hurt in the melee, it said in a statement.

The attacks have shocked a nation beset by resurgent conflict with the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in its southeast and increasingly threatened by spillover from the war in neighboring Syria.

Islamic State fighters are encamped close to its borders, which mark also the frontier of the NATO alliance, and last week Russia launched air strikes in Syria, its planes violating Turkish air space on several occasions.

SURUC BOMBING SIMILARITIES

Two senior security sources said initial signs suggested Islamic State was behind the Ankara attack, and that it bore striking similarity to a July suicide bombing in Suruc near the Syrian border, also blamed on the radical Islamists.

“All signs indicate that the attack may have been carried out by ISIL (Islamic State). We are completely focused on ISIL,” one of the sources told Reuters.

CHP opposition leader Ahmet Kilicdaroglu, speaking after a meeting with Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, said he had been told both suicide bombers were men.

State-run Anadolu Agency said police detained 43 suspects in operations targeting the Islamic State across Turkey from Sanliurfa in the southeast to Izmir in the west and Antalya on the south coast. It was not clear when they were held.

The Haberturk newspaper reported police sources as saying the type of explosive and the choice of target pointed to a group within Islamic State known as the ‘Adiyaman ones’, referring to Adiyaman province in southeast Turkey.

Turkey is vulnerable to infiltration by Islamic State, which holds swathes of Syrian land abutting Turkey where some two million refugees live. But the group, not normally reticent about its attacks, made no claim to the Suruc bombing and has made no reference to the Ankara attack in internet postings

The HDP, which expanded beyond its Kurdish voter base and drew in mainly left-wing opponents of Erdogan at June elections, said the death toll had risen to 128 and that it had identified all but eight of the bodies.

The prime minister’s office said late on Saturday that 95 people had been killed.

The scale of the casualties eclipsed attacks blamed on al Qaeda in 2003 when two synagogues, the Istanbul HSBC Bank headquarters and the British consulate were hit, killing 62 people. Questions have been raised over whether a parliamentary election due on Nov. 1 can be safely held.

Prime Minister Davutoglu, exposing a mosaic of domestic political perils, said on Saturday Islamic State, Kurdish militant factions or far-leftist radicals could all have carried out Saturday’s bombing.

Some direct their suspicions at militant nationalist groupings, with or without ties to the state, who are opposed to any concession to Kurdish demands for greater minority rights.

HDP leader Selahattin Demirtas said the government had blood on its hands, accusing it of failing to fully investigate the Suruc bombing or another attack on an HDP election rally in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir on the eve of the last parliamentary election in June.

But government officials made clear that, despite the security concerns, elections would go ahead.

“Postponing the elections as a result of the attack is not on the table at all, even as an option. The elections will be held on Nov. 1 as planned,” one senior official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity as the government observes three days of national mourning.

“Because of the rising risks, the security at election rallies, which is already being increased, will be raised further. The election will be held in a secure way.”

Erdogan hopes the AK Party he founded will regain the overall majority it had held since 2002, but lost at June elections, partly because of the success of the HDP.

After meeting Davutoglu on Sunday, main opposition CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu said he told the prime minister that the interior and justice ministers must resign over the bombings and that the HDP’s Demirtas should not be sidelined.

WAR ON PKK CONTINUES

The bombs struck seconds apart as crowds gathered for a planned march to protest over the deaths of hundreds since the collapse in July of a ceasefire between security forces and the rebel PKK, which is deemed a terrorist group by the United States and the EU as well as Turkey. Some 40,000 have been killed since the insurgency began in 1984.

The government has shown no sign of stopping its war against the PKK, even after the militant group on Saturday ordered its fighters to halt attacks on Turkish soil. The government dismissed the declaration as a ploy.

Turkish warplanes struck PKK targets in northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey on Saturday and Sunday, and security sources said some 30-35 PKK guerrillas were killed in the northern Iraqi raids on Sunday alone.

“The PKK ceasefire means nothing for us. Operations will continue without a break,” a senior security official said.

Newspaper headlines reflected a mixture of grief and anger.

“We are in mourning for peace,” said the front-page headline in the secularist Cumhuriyet newspaper. “Scum Launch attack in Ankara,” said the Haberturk newspaper. “The goal is to divide the nation,” said the pro-government Star.

(Additional reporting by Daren Butler in Istanbul, Seyhmus Cakan in Diyarbakir, Gulsen Solaker and Umit Bektas in Ankara; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Ralph Boulton)

Members of the left-wing Labour Party (EMEP) shout slogans as they carry pictures of the victims of Saturday’s bomb blasts during a commemoration in Ankara, Turkey, October 11, 2015. REUTERS/Umit Bektas – RTS3YMR

Demonstrations Hit Istanbul, Ankara As Mine Death Toll Hits 274

Demonstrations Hit Istanbul, Ankara As Mine Death Toll Hits 274

By Can Merey and Shabtai Gold, McClatchy Tribune News Service

ISTANBUL — Thousands of people took to the streets of Istanbul Wednesday, demanding the resignation of the Turkish government as the number of dead rose to 274 in what is likely to become the country’s worst mining disaster.

The initially peaceful demonstrations turned ugly when police set loose water cannon and tear gas as protesters marched closer to central Istanbul’s Taksim Square. The demonstrators accused the government of murder in its handling of Tuesday’s tragedy at the Soma coal mine.

In Ankara, police used tear gas and water cannon against several hundred students who had gathered at the Energy Ministry. Protesters threw stones and Molotov cocktails at the security forces. There were smaller demonstrations in Soma led by family and friends of the victims.

A number of funerals were held, but the majority of the bodies had not been identified. Relatives and loved-ones waited into the late evening Wednesday outside a regional hospital that was serving as a morgue.

Funeral vehicles with empty coffins inside waited near the hospital for bodies.

The Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions called for workers to strike Thursday in honor of the victims.

Questions were being raised about the mine’s safety record, with local media reporting that the ruling Justice and Development Party had rejected a call by the opposition in parliament last month to review safety at the mine.

Mine operator Soma Holding said a safety test had been carried out two months ago.

In Soma, Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said hopes that rescue teams would find further survivors were fading. “It is worse than initially expected,” he said.

About 120 miners were believed to still be trapped underground, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

However, according to numbers given by the Energy Minister, the toll could exceed 400. More than 350 miners were estimated to have been rescued in the wake of the blast and subsequent fire at the coal mine, but it said 787 workers were inside at the time of the accident.

“We are moving toward the worst mining disaster in Turkey,” Yildiz was quoted as saying by the Hurriyet newspaper.

Erdogan tried to downplay the poor safety record of Turkish coal mines by comparing it to the 19th century.

“Such accidents occur regularly,” he said after visiting Soma. “If you look back into the past in England, in 1862, 204 people died in a mine. In 1866, 361 people died, and in a 1894 explosion, 290 died.”

Authorities reportedly believe the fire was caused by an electrical malfunction. Smoke continued to rise from the mine shaft late Wednesday.

Most of the deaths were the result of carbon monoxide poisoning after the fire burned off much of the oxygen in the mine.

Of those who survived, Erdogan said, 80 were being treated for injuries.

Fresh oxygen continued to be pumped into the mine shafts for any survivors, but rescue efforts were hampered by the remote location. The miners were 1 mile below the surface and 2 1/2 miles from an exit when the blast occurred.

Turkey has a history of deadly mining accidents. In 1992, one such accident near the Black Sea killed 263 people.

AFP Photo/ Bulent Kilic

Tear Gas At Turkish May Day Protests, Red Square Rally Draws 100,000

Tear Gas At Turkish May Day Protests, Red Square Rally Draws 100,000

Istanbul (AFP) – Turkish police fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse May Day protesters in Istanbul on Thursday, as millions took to the streets around the world to mark International Labor Day.

About 100,000 workers paraded on Moscow’s iconic Red Square for the first time since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union as the annexation of Crimea triggered a surge of patriotism.

Protesters were also out in force in European countries including France, Italy and Greece, marching against unemployment and austerity policies. Across Asia, workers took to the streets demanding better working conditions and salary hikes.

In tense Istanbul, hundreds of riot police backed up by water cannon moved in on protesters as they tried to breach the barricades leading up to the symbolic Taksim square on the anniversary of clashes that spawned a nationwide protest movement.

At least 51 people were injured and 138 detained across the city, the Progressive Lawyers Association said, as police clashed with flag-waving and balaclava-wearing protesters hurling stones and Molotov cocktails.

In Istanbul’s Besiktas, Mahmut Tanal, a lawmaker from the main opposition Republican People’s Party was beaten by police who tried to pushed him away from a water cannon truck.

“This is a picture that you can only see in countries which are governed by dictator regimes,” Tanal told AFP.

In Turkey’s capital Ankara, police fired volleys of tear gas and jets of water on hundreds of protesters trying to march to the Kizilay Square, also declared off limits.

The most impressive May Day turnout was in Russia, where a huge column of demonstrators waving Russian flags and balloons marched through Moscow’s iconic square near the Kremlin and voiced their support for President Vladimir Putin and his hardline stance on the Ukraine crisis.

“Putin is right,” “Proud of the country” and “Let’s support decisions of our president” read the banners carried by the smiling demonstrators, a colorful spectacle harking back to Soviet times.

May Day was a key date in the Soviet calendar, but in recent years, the annual demonstrations have been relegated to a city highway.

Trade union leaders said about two million people had turned up for May Day rallies across Russia.

The tone was markedly different in Greece where thousands marched in the countries two main cities of Athens and Salonika against an austerity drive following a disastrous debt crisis that led to mass lay-offs.

In Italy’s Turin, scuffles broke out between police and hundreds of protesters.

Activists lobbed smoke bombs at police, who charged demonstrators in the northern industrial city, which has been badly hit by a painful two-year recession.

Thousands marched in France with the biggest rallies in Paris and other major cities such as Bordeaux and Toulouse targeting the Socialist government’s budget cuts to rein in the deficit.

Rallies also took place across Asia, including in Hong Kong, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Taipei.

In Cambodia, security forces armed with sticks and batons forcibly dispersed dozens of May Day protesters near Phnom Penh’s Freedom Park, according to an AFP photographer. Several people were beaten.

In Indonesia, protesters carrying portraits of leftist idols such as Che Guevara, Fidel Castro and the country’s first president Sukarno, marched to the state palace in Jakarta.

Some sang and danced as others carried a three-meter-long toy octopus wearing a red hat with the words “Capitalist Octopus, Sucking the Blood of Workers.”

More than 1,000 protesters gathered in Hong Kong’s landmark Victoria Park to walk towards the government headquarters waving colorful flags and placards, while singing a Chinese version of “Do You Hear the People Sing?” from the musical Les Miserables, while calling for better working conditions and wages.

Domestic helper rights concern groups, which made up a large portion of the rally, wore masks with a picture of Erwiana Sulistyaningsih, an Indonesian maid who was allegedly abused by her employer for months, while shouting: “We are workers, we are not slaves.”

About 20,000 people rallied in Kuala Lumpur against price hikes implemented by Malaysia’s long-ruling government, which already is under domestic and international scrutiny over its handling of the passenger jet that disappeared on March 8.

More than 10,000 workers marched to the labor ministry in Taiwan’s capital Taipei demanding wage hikes and a ban on companies hiring cheap temporary or part-time workers.

In Singapore, a protest organised by critics of the government’s immigration policy drew around 400 protesters chanting slogans calling for the long-ruling People’s Action Party to step down.

©afp.com / Gurcan Ozturk