Qatar yesterday strongly expressed its “condemnation and denunciation” of the explosion that targeted a police bus in Beyazit Vezneciler area in central Istanbul, killing and wounding a number of people.
In a statement, the Foreign Ministry affirmed Qatar’s stand beside the Turkish Republic and its full support for all its actions to preserve security and maintain stability.
The statement reiterated Qatar’s “firm stance on rejecting violence and terrorism in all its manifestations and forms and whatever its source”.
The statement expressed Qatar’s condolences and sympathy to the families of the victims and to the Turkish government and people, wishing speedy recovery to those wounded.
The attack killed seven police officers and four
civilians, Turkish state media said.
Another 36 people were wounded, three of them seriously, Istanbul governor Vasip Sahin said.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon condemned the bombing, which his spokesman called a “despicable terrorist attack”.
The blast reduced the bus, which was carrying riot police, to mangled wreckage. It gutted the front of a hotel opposite and shattered the windows of nearby shops.
Police have detained four suspects over the bombing, state-run news agency Anatolia agency said.
The four were taken to police headquarters in Istanbul for interrogation, it said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
But President Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggested the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has fought a three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state, was behind the attack.
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