{"id":25926,"date":"2016-06-08T02:51:21","date_gmt":"2016-06-08T02:51:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/istanbul-bombing-turkey-police-arrest-four\/"},"modified":"2016-06-08T02:51:06","modified_gmt":"2016-06-08T02:51:06","slug":"istanbul-bombing-turkey-police-arrest-four","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/istanbul-bombing-turkey-police-arrest-four\/","title":{"rendered":"Istanbul bombing: Turkey police arrest four suspects"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Turkish police detain four suspects after attack on police bus kills 11 people in central Istanbul.}<\/p>\n

Four suspects have been detained for questioning in connection to a bomb attack that targeted a police vehicle near the main tourist district in central Istanbul, killing 11 and injuring 36 people. <\/p>\n

The four were arrested hours after Tuesday’s attack and were being held at Istanbul’s main police headquarters, Turkish state media reported. <\/p>\n

Speaking at the scene of the blast in the Beyazit district, Istanbul Governer Vasip Sahin said a bomb placed inside a car detonated as the police bus passed by, killing seven members of the police force as well as four civilians. <\/p>\n

Reports said the explosion took place near the Vezneciler metro station, which is within walking distance of some of the city’s main tourist sites, including the Suleymaniye Mosque.<\/p>\n

The White House condemned the attack as a “horrific act” and confirmed that the US “stands together with Turkey” as the two countries confront challenges in the region. <\/p>\n

Al Jazeera’s Emre Rende, reporting from Istanbul, said the “bus was targeted by a remotely detonated car bomb before a second blast, believed to have been caused by a gas canister.<\/p>\n

“The attack happened close to the Grand Bazaar so it might have been done to keep tourists away,” he added.<\/p>\n

Pictures showed the bomb had turned the police vehicle into mangled wreckage and that nearby shops had their front windows smashed out by the force of the blast.<\/p>\n

President Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that the country’s fight against armed groups would continue “to the end”. Speaking to reporters after visiting some of the injured in a hospital near the site of the blast, Erdogan said the attack was “unforgivable”.<\/p>\n

The bombing came during the first days of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month, a time marked by dawn-to-dusk fasting and intense prayer.<\/p>\n

Istanbul had already been hit by two bombings this year, including in tourist areas.<\/p>\n

Both attacks were blamed on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group, and a pair of attacks in Ankara that were claimed by Kurdish separatists and killed dozens.<\/p>\n

The two attacks in Ankara were claimed by the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) – a splinter group of the better-known outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).<\/p>\n

The attacks have had a dire effect on the tourism industry heading into the key summer season.<\/p>\n

Some 1.75 million foreigners came to Turkey in April, down more than 28 percent on April 2015, the tourism ministry said in its latest release.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Turkish police detain four suspects after attack on police bus kills 11 people in central Istanbul.} Four suspects have been detained for questioning in connection to a bomb attack that targeted a police vehicle near the main tourist district in central Istanbul, killing 11 and injuring 36 people. The four were arrested hours after Tuesday’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101],"byline":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-25926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-internationl","byline-al-jazeera"],"bylines":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25926\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25926"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=25926"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=25926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}