Suspect Killed in Botched Istanbul Bombing
A suspected Kurdish rebel was killed overnight in Istanbul when the bomb he was carrying detonated before he had a chance to plant it, the city's governor said Wednesday.
The remains of the 23-year-old suspect were found in bushes in the popular Esenyurt district, police said.
Police initially suspected a botched suicide bombing, but Istanbul governor, Huseyin Avni Mutlu said the blast happened when the man was transporting the device "probably to plant it somewhere else" for a timed detonation.
"We believe it is not suicide bombing. The person is a terrorist who died when the bomb he carried went off, probably before he had a chance to plant it," he told the Anatolia news agency.
Esenyurt is a busy area on the European side of Istanbul but was deserted when the device exploded in the early hours of the morning, police said.
Outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels are suspected of carrying out similar attacks, including the May 25 suicide bombing targeting a police station in central Anatolia which killed an officer.
Around a dozen bomb attacks have targeted Istanbul over the past two months, without causing fatalities.
However, in November 2010 in Istanbul, a bomber blew himself up on the central Taksim square, wounding 32 people.
The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey and by much of the international community, took up arms in Kurdish-majority southeastern Turkey in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed some 45,000 lives.
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