ISTANBUL, Turkey – A suicide bomber set off an explosive in front of a police post Monday, killing himself and two police officers, injuring 21 people and creating panic in Istanbul’s nearby main square, a popular destination for tourists.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, which created such a gruesome scene that police dashed to the area and covered bloody body parts with newspapers, putting stones on top to prevent the paper from blowing away.
Police identified the dead bomber as Ugur Bulbul, who was released from prison six months ago after serving time for membership in a banned Marxist group, the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front.
The group is leading a yearlong hunger strike to protest prison conditions. Thirty-three people have died while fasting.
It would not be the first time that the group carried out a suicide attack. In January, a member of the group blew himself up in a police cafeteria and killed an officer to protest prison conditions.
Monday’s attacker approached a police post, where officers who patrol the square gather, and detonated the bomb, according to Istanbul Gov. Erol Cakir, who said 17 of the injured were police officers.
Another of the injured was an Australian tourist who lost her arm in the blast, Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said.
The explosion took place in a side street off Istanbul’s Taksim Square and about 150 yards from the German Consulate. The area was filled with people waiting for buses and is home to offices and stores.
“There was a massive explosion, then suddenly there was a huge cloud of dust,” said Asim Korkmaz, a grocer who was delivering vegetables to a restaurant some 60 yards away from the bomb scene.
Police dragged bloody colleagues and civilians into taxis and ambulances after the blast.
Leftist militants and Kurdish rebels who fought for autonomy in overwhelming Kurdish southeastern Turkey have carried out several suicide attacks in Istanbul and other cities in the past years.
The Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front has vowed to avenge the deaths of hunger strikers. The strikers began fasting last year after soldiers stormed 20 prisons to break up large dormitory-style prison wards, which the government says were being run like rebel indoctrination centers. The prisoners were transferred to small cells, where they say they fear abuse by police. (newswire)
