Kurdish TAK claims responsibility for Istanbul suicide bombing
![A Turkish anti riot-police officer stands guard near the site of a bomb attack that targeted a bus shuttle service carrying anti-riot police in the Vezneciler district of Istanbul](https://d.ibtimes.co.uk/en/full/1523481/turkish-anti-riot-police-officer-stands-guard-near-site-bomb-attack-that-targeted-bus-shuttle.jpg?w=736&f=859445f07b81d2fe717252b074edc7d9)
A radical offshoot of the Kurdish PKK has claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing in Istanbul on Tuesday, 7 June, which killed 11 people. The car bomb attack targeted a police bus during the rush hour near one of Istanbul's main tourism areas.
The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK), a radical offshoot of the PKK, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on its website, which said the attack was a suicide bombing.
The statement praises the "martyr" who committed the attack "for our people murdered in Nusaybin". On 6 June, the Turkish military announced that 1,000 PKK militants had been killed in clashes in Nusaybin district, which is in the Kurdish majority south-east of the country.
The statement (here the English version) also includes a warning to tourists visiting #Turkey pic.twitter.com/yyBZm4SMVs
— Michael Horowitz (@michaelh992) 10 June 2016
The statement also issued a warning to tourists planning to visit Turkey: "You are not our targets but Turkey is no more secure for you."
The TAK claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in Turkish capital Ankara in March which killed 37 people, and another in the city three weeks previously which killed 29 people.
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