Ankara claims PKK’s Syrian offshoot is behind bloody Istanbul attack

ANKARA: In an overnight raid, Istanbul police detained a 23-year-old Syrian woman, Ahlam Al-Bashir, as the prime suspect for having planted the bomb that killed six people and wounded 81 people in the city on Sunday.

Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu announced that the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, and its Syrian offshoot the Democratic Union Party, or PYD, were behind Sunday’s blast in Istiklal Avenue, targeting civilians.