An Iranian Among 5 Killed in Istanbul Terrorist Attack
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – An Iranian citizen has been killed in a suicide bomb attack on Istanbul's main pedestrian shopping street on Saturday, which also claimed four other lives.
A group of Iranian tourists were among victims of the Saturday suicide bomb attack in Istanbul’s Istiklal Street, a popular destination for tourists and locals in a central neighborhood that is home to cafes, restaurants, foreign consulates and a government offices.
Alireza Razmkhah, 45, was killed, while his wife and baby were wounded. An elderly woman was also wounded in the attack, but was in stable condition.
Following the incident, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, himself in Istanbul at the time of the attack, condemned the terrorist attack and offered condolences to the Turkish government and nation.
And at the end of his one-day visit to Turkey, Zarif spoke to one of the Iranian injured tourists on the telephone, wishing a speedy recovery and release from the hospital.
The minister gave an assurance that Iran’s consulate office in Istanbul will take care of the injured citizens.
The explosion was the sixth suicide bombing in Turkey in the past year.
Turkey's health minister, Mehmet Muezzinoglu, said the 36 people wounded in the attack included six Israelis, two Irish citizens and one person each from Iceland, Germany, Dubai and Iran.
Istanbul's governor later raised the number of injured to 39 and said 24 of them were foreigners, without providing a breakdown by nationalities.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but suspicion has fallen on the Daesh (ISIL) terrorist group and on the Kurdish militants who have claimed two recent attacks in the capital, Ankara.