Turkish government blames Kurdish separatists for Istanbul bombing

Blast in busy street on Sunday killed six people and wounded scores more

People lay flowers at a makeshift memorial
Mourners lay flowers at a makeshift memorial in central Istanbul
(Image credit: Yasin Akgul/Getty Images)

The Turkish authorities have arrested 46 suspected Kurdish militants over the explosion in central Istanbul on Sunday that killed at least six people and left 81 wounded.

No group has claimed responsibility for the blast but Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu blamed the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Soylu told reporters today that “our assessment is that the order for the deadly terror attack came from Ayn al-Arab in northern Syria”, where the militant group is thought to have its Syrian headquarters.

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  Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.