According to local media, a Turkish court on Friday ordered the detention of 17 suspects, including a Syrian lady, for their suspected involvement in a blast that left six people dead in central Istanbul.
The government has blamed last Sunday’s attack on the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been labelled a terrorist organisation by Ankara and its Western supporters.
Two girls, ages nine and fifteen, were among the victims.
The PKK and its Syrian offshoot, the YPG, have both denied any involvement. No one or anything has taken the responsibility for the attack.
Alham Albashir, a Syrian woman who is suspected of working with Kurdish terrorists, was apprehended by Turkish police in an Istanbul suburb.
During her investigation, Albashir reportedly confessed to blowing up the bomb.
According to the Anadolu news agency, the Istanbul court remanded 17 suspects in pre-trial detention on charges of “destroying the state’s unity,” “deliberate killing,” and “deliberately attempting to murder.”
Albashir told the agency that she joined the PKK due to her boyfriend’s influence and that she kept her ties to the organisation after she broke up with him.
The incident, which was the deadliest in five years, brought back painful memories of a string of statewide bombings from 2015 to 2017 that came up to Kurdish militants and jihadists affiliated with the Islamic State.
Numerous details about the woman were made public by Turkish media, however, there are still uncertainties.
She is said to have crossed Turkey illegally from Afrin, which is held by Ankara-backed groups.
How the woman rented her residence in Istanbul has also been a subject of debate.
Suleyman Soylu, the interior minister, stated that according to Ankara, the attack was ordered from Kobane, which is a city in northern Syria that is under the control of Syrian Kurdish militia forces.
