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Conflicts

Bomb hidden in motorbike injures 10 in Istanbul

October 6, 2016

An explosion near Istanbul's Ataturk airport has wounded at least 10 people, Turkish media reported. No group immediately claimed responsibility; Turkey has faced recent attacks by "IS" terrorists and Kurdish rebels.

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Türkei Polizisten in in Istanbul
Image: Getty Images/AFP/B. Kilic

The explosion took place on Thursday near a police station in the district of Yenibosna, about two kilometers from the Ataturk International Airport.

TV footage showed wrecked cars and shards of glass scattered around the site of explosion. Witnesses told CNN-Turk television that they heard several gunshots as well.

One person was seriously wounded in the attack.

Since last year, Turkey has been hit hard by a series of militant attacks. In June, triple suicide bombings and gun attacks at Ataturk airport killed 46 people. Turkish authorities blamed the militant "Islamic State" (IS) group for the attack.

An IS-perpetrated attack in August claimed 57 lives - 34 of them children - at a Kurdish wedding in the southeastern city of Gaziantep.

The government has also blamed the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) for orchestrating a number of deadly attacks in the recent months.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed to use force against both IS and the PKK, with military offensives against the latter in full flow for months now in Turkey's southeast.

The country is also reeling from a botched July 15 military coup, which Ankara blames on the US-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen. Erdogan has launched a nationwide purge of opponents since the failed putsch.

Turkey's military involvement in neighboring Syria against IS, and its campaign against Kurd rebels within its own borders have also been blamed for the surge in violence in some Turkish cities.

shs/msh  (AFP, Reuters, dpa)