Perpetrator behind deadly Istanbul bombing arrested

Syrian national, Ahlam ALBASHIR, who reportedly carried out the incident, was captured alive in the operation carried out at a determined address at 2.50pm on Monday. 

Six people were killed and wounded 81 others on a bustling pedestrian avenue in Istanbul, on Nov. 14.

Istanbul, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said assessment showed that the order for the deadly terror attack came from Ayn al-Arab in northern Syria, where the PKK/YPG has its Syrian headquarters.”

Police who examined 1200 security cameras saw the arrival and departure routes of the suspect who left the scene by taxi and went to Esenler district. In order to catch the woman, 1,200 security cameras covering the routes to and from the scene were examined.

An operation was organized for 21 addresses that the woman was found to be in contact with during the physical and technical investigation. The suspect was identified in the Küçükçekmece district.

Istanbul police said 46 people were detained in total, specifying that the explosive used in the attack was TNT.

The suspect reportedly stated in her interrogation that she was trained as a “special intelligence officer” by the PKK/YPG terrorist organization and that she entered the country illegally through Afrin to take the action.

Meanwhile, the terrorist organization PKK claimed that it had nothing to do with the explosion in Istanbul, and said, "It is out of question for us to target civilians in any way on the ground of Turkey."

The minister also told reporters that the terrorist’s organization had “given orders for the main suspect to be killed to avoid evidence being traced back to them.”