Amir condoles Turkey on Istanbul terror attack – 11 killed in bomb targeting police

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KUWAIT CITY, June 7, (Agencies): His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah sent on Tuesday a cable of condolences to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in which he expressed his deepest condolences and sympathy on the victims of the terrorist attack in the district of Beyazit in central Istanbul, wishing mercy for those killed and speedy recovery for the wounded.

His Highness the Amir expressed Kuwait’s strong condemnation of such terrorist attack against innocent civilians that contradicts with all norms and humanitarian principles, pointing to Kuwait’s firm stance which denounces terrorism in all its forms and manifestations as well as its bid to dry out its sources in collaboration with the world community.

His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah also sent similar cables. A car bomb ripped through a police bus in central Istanbul during the morning rush hour on Tuesday, killing 11 people and wounding 36 near the main tourist district, a major university and the mayor’s office.

The car was detonated as police buses passed, Istanbul Governor Vasip Sahin told reporters, in the fourth major bombing in Turkey’s biggest city this year. There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Kurdish militants have staged similar attacks on the security forces before, including one last month in Istanbul.

Security concerns were already hitting tourism and investor confidence. Wars in neighbouring Syria and Iraq have fostered a home-grown Islamic State network blamed for a series of suicide bombings, while militants from the largely Kurdish southeast have increasingly struck in cities further afield.

Erdogan vowed the NATO member’s fight against terrorism would go on, describing the attack on officers whose jobs were to protect others as “unforgivable”. “We will continue our fight against these terrorists until the end, tirelessly and fearlessly,” he told reporters after visiting some of the injured in a hospital near the blast site.

Sahin said the dead included seven police officers and four civilians and that the attack had targeted vehicles carrying members of a riot police unit. Three of the 36 wounded were in critical condition, he said.

The bomb was planted in a rental car and was detonated by remote control, the Dogan news agency said, without citing its sources. It said four people had been detained. The blast on the second day of the Muslim Holy Month of Ramadan hit the Vezneciler district, between the headquarters of the local municipality and the campus of Istanbul University, not far from the city’s historic heart. It shattered windows in shops and a mosque and scattered debris over nearby streets.

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