Five Persons Killed, 12 Injured in Bomb Blast in Istanbul
Nearly five people were killed and 12 others wounded when a roadside bomb struck a shuttle bus carrying security personnel in Istanbul, said media reports.
According to semi-official Anatolia News Agency, noncommissioned officer Duran Bayram, 32, who was seriously injured in the attack, lost his life in hospital, reports said.
Earlier reports said put the toll at four, with three sergeants and the 17-year-old daughter of an officer being killed.
Istanbul Governor Huseyin Avni Mutlu said that the device was fragment remote-control bomb which was detonated close to a military lodging complex in the district of Halkali in Istanbul’s European side at around 7:30 am, said reports.
The explosion occurred in the Halkali district when the bus carrying defence personnel and their families from the military lodging was passing by a cemetery, reports said.
So far no group or individual has claimed responsibility for the blast and it is not known how many passengers were on the bus, said reports.
The blast came a day after Turkish military forces began a major deployment of troops and elite forces along the border with Iraq, as fighting intensified between Turkish armed forces and militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
(Based on internet reports)
