ANKARA: Turkey’s western province of Izmir woke up on the eve of Eid Al-Adha to an explosion near a moving prison bus.
No organization has claimed responsibility for the blast, which is being investigated by the police. Eight people were wounded, one of whom is in critical condition.
The bomb, which also damaged vehicles parked nearby, was in a garbage container on the route of the bus, which was carrying wardens and officials from a maximum-security prison.
The public prosecutor’s office said the attack was carried out by an improvised explosive device.
The Justice Ministry said: “This attack is not just against our prison wardens, but also against our law, justice, nation and state. We strongly condemn and damn those who carried out such a cowardly attack.”
On Tuesday, counterterrorism police in Izmir detained six suspects, including Syrian nationals, for their alleged links to Daesh.
Authorities said the suspects were found with “digital materials and documents” containing Daesh propaganda.
Izmir city, Turkey’s third-largest, is known for its secular and liberal lifestyle, and hosts a NATO headquarters.
Experts say the attack was most likely carried out by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), or by Daesh.
The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK), the urban wing of the PKK, claimed responsibility for attacks in Turkey’s big cities last year that killed dozens of people. Ankara considers both TAK and the PKK as terrorist organizations.
Since the emergence of Daesh, Turkey has detained about 5,000 suspects and prohibited the entry of more than 53,000.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hinted at further operations in Syria and Iraq.
“They should know that whatever we did in the Euphrates Shield Operation, we are ready to carry out the same in the upcoming process,” Erdogan said, referring to Turkey’s military operation in northern Syria against Daesh and Kurdish forces.
Aykan Erdemir, a former Turkish MP and a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said the targeting of prison guards points to a political motive, possibly in retaliation for the treatment of political inmates at the prison in question.
“In March 2017, there was a similar PKK attempt in Buca to place an improvised explosive device in a garbage container, but the bomb detonated prematurely, killing one of the two plotters,” Erdemir told Arab News.
Earlier this month, there were complaints of ill-treatment of political inmates at Kiriklar, he added. “The bomb attack could be linked to such grievances.”
Abdullah Agar, a security analyst based in Turkey, agreed. “The style of this terrorist act, using an improvised explosive device, leads us to think that the PKK/TAK may be behind it, because the PKK intends to expand terrorism in the southeast to a wider geography and an extended period of time; it does this by using its offshoots,” he told Arab News. Last month, TAK said it would carry out attacks in Turkey’s big cities, Agar said.
Speculation rife over explosion in Turkey’s Izmir province
Speculation rife over explosion in Turkey’s Izmir province
UN rights chief Shocked by ‘unbearable’ Darfur atrocities
- Mediation efforts have failed to produce a ceasefire, even after international outrage intensified last year with reports of mass killings, rape, and abductions during the RSF’s takeover of El-Fasher in Darfur
PORT SUDAN: Nearly three years of war have put the Sudanese people through “hell,” the UN’s rights chief said on Sunday, blasting the vast sums spent on advanced weaponry at the expense of humanitarian aid and the recruitment of child soldiers.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been gripped by a conflict between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces that has left tens of thousands of people dead and around 11 million displaced.
Speaking in Port Sudan during his first wartime visit, UN Human Rights commissioner Volker Turk said the population had endured “horror and hell,” calling it “despicable” that funds that “should be used to alleviate the suffering of the population” are instead spent on advanced weapons, particularly drones.
More than 21 million people are facing acute food insecurity, and two-thirds of Sudan’s population is in urgent need of humanitarian aid, according to the UN.
In addition to the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis, Sudan is also facing “the increasing militarization of society by all parties to the conflict, including through the arming of civilians and recruitment and use of children,” Turk added.
He said he had heard testimony of “unbearable” atrocities from survivors of attacks in Darfur, and warned of similar crimes unfolding in the Kordofan region — the current epicenter of the fighting.
Testimony of these atrocities must be heard by “the commanders of this conflict and those who are arming, funding and profiting from this war,” he said.
Mediation efforts have failed to produce a ceasefire, even after international outrage intensified last year with reports of mass killings, rape, and abductions during the RSF’s takeover of El-Fasher in Darfur.
“We must ensure that the perpetrators of these horrific violations face justice regardless of the affiliation,” Turk said on Sunday, adding that repeated attacks on civilian infrastructure could constitute “war crimes.”
He called on both sides to “cease intolerable attacks against civilian objects that are indispensable to the civilian population, including markets, health facilities, schools and shelters.”
Turk again warned on Sunday that crimes similar to those seen in El-Fasher could recur in volatile Kordofan, where the RSF has advanced, besieging and attacking several key cities.
Hundreds of thousands face starvation across the region, where more than 65,000 people have been displaced since October, according to the latest UN figures.
