ISTANBUL, Turkey: Turkish police have detained 44 suspects in anti-terrorist operations, including the planners of two suicide bomb attacks in Istanbul last year, the city’s governor said on Thursday.
Twin bombs — one planted in a car and the other strapped to a suicide bomber — exploded in an attack outside the stadium of Besiktas soccer club in central Istanbul on Dec. 10, killing 44 people and wounding 155.
“One of the suspects detained in the operation had carried out reconnaissance work before the December 2016 bombing, and had jumped and fled the car shortly before it was detonated,” Istanbul governor Vasip Sahin told reporters.
The other suspect detained has been identified as the organizer of a July 2016 attack against a police bus that killed 11 people, including civilians and police officers, and left 36 people wounded.
The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK), an offshoot of the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), claimed responsibility for both attacks.
The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the EU, and the US, has fought a three-decades-old insurgency in Turkey in which more than 40,000 people have been killed.
Turkey has sent two ships and a submarine to monitor a drilling vessel in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, the military said on Thursday, in a move likely to increase tension with Cyprus after reunification talks failed last week.
The drilling work, a contractual obligation between Cyprus and France’s Total, comes a week after the collapse of talks to reunify the divided island nation, split between ethnic Greek and Turkish Cypriots.
Ankara has said it will take measures against Cyprus for engaging in gas and oil exploration around the island. It says that hydrocarbon resources in the waters around the divided island should belong to both sides.
The military said it had deployed the frigates and a submarine to the eastern Mediterranean to “guarantee the security of oil transportation.”
Another frigate was dispatched to monitor a drilling vessel off the coast of Cyprus, it said.
Turkey’s energy and foreign ministries are working together to plan steps against the Greek side’s unilateral steps, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday, without giving details on what those steps might entail.
The “West Capella” drilling vessel, which was contracted by France’s Total and Italy Eni, moved into position to start exploring for gas this week.
Turkey, which invaded Cyprus’s north in 1974 in response to a brief Greek-inspired coup, says the island’s internationally recognized government has no jurisdiction to explore for hydrocarbons.
Twin bombs — one planted in a car and the other strapped to a suicide bomber — exploded in an attack outside the stadium of Besiktas soccer club in central Istanbul on Dec. 10, killing 44 people and wounding 155.
“One of the suspects detained in the operation had carried out reconnaissance work before the December 2016 bombing, and had jumped and fled the car shortly before it was detonated,” Istanbul governor Vasip Sahin told reporters.
The other suspect detained has been identified as the organizer of a July 2016 attack against a police bus that killed 11 people, including civilians and police officers, and left 36 people wounded.
The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK), an offshoot of the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), claimed responsibility for both attacks.
The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the EU, and the US, has fought a three-decades-old insurgency in Turkey in which more than 40,000 people have been killed.
Turkey has sent two ships and a submarine to monitor a drilling vessel in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, the military said on Thursday, in a move likely to increase tension with Cyprus after reunification talks failed last week.
The drilling work, a contractual obligation between Cyprus and France’s Total, comes a week after the collapse of talks to reunify the divided island nation, split between ethnic Greek and Turkish Cypriots.
Ankara has said it will take measures against Cyprus for engaging in gas and oil exploration around the island. It says that hydrocarbon resources in the waters around the divided island should belong to both sides.
The military said it had deployed the frigates and a submarine to the eastern Mediterranean to “guarantee the security of oil transportation.”
Another frigate was dispatched to monitor a drilling vessel off the coast of Cyprus, it said.
Turkey’s energy and foreign ministries are working together to plan steps against the Greek side’s unilateral steps, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday, without giving details on what those steps might entail.
The “West Capella” drilling vessel, which was contracted by France’s Total and Italy Eni, moved into position to start exploring for gas this week.
Turkey, which invaded Cyprus’s north in 1974 in response to a brief Greek-inspired coup, says the island’s internationally recognized government has no jurisdiction to explore for hydrocarbons.
