A twin bomb attack outside a football stadium in Istanbul "killed 38 people, mostly police officers, and injured more than 160 others," Turkey's Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said, according to Shaheen & Smith of the London GUARDIAN. The death toll from the two explosions jumped overnight to 38, making it "one of the most devastating attacks in recent months in Turkey." The two bombs, a car packed with 300kg of explosives and a suicide bomb, "in quick succession" struck at about 10:30pm in the Besiktas neighborhood on Istanbul's European side. The attacks killed seven civilians and 31 police officers, and "occurred two hours after fans had left the stadium," which hosted a match between Süper Lig sides Besiktas and Bursaspor. PM Binali Yildirim "declared a day of mourning and ordered flags flown at half-mast to commemorate the victims of the latest attack." Omer Yilmaz, who works near the stadium, said, "It was like hell. The flames went all the way up to the sky" (GUARDIAN, 12/11). In Tel Aviv, Barak Ravid reported "a Kurdish militant group claimed responsibility" on Sunday for the Istanbul blasts. In a statement on its website, the Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) said "it had carried out the attacks." TAK, an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), has taken responsibility for other deadly attacks in Turkey this year. TAK said that Turkish people "were not its direct target, and added that two of its members died during the attack outside the stadium." A Reuters photographer said "many riot police officers were seriously wounded." Armed police sealed off streets. A police water cannon doused the wreckage of a burned-out car and there were two separate fires on the road outside the stadium (HAARETZ, 12/11).
