Less than a week after an attack in the Turkish metropolis of Istanbul, five people have been arrested in Bulgaria. They are accused of “aiding the suspected perpetrator of the terrorist act” with six dead, Bulgarian Attorney General’s spokeswoman Sijka Milewa told state radio in Sofia on Saturday. On Friday, a Turkish court ordered the detention of 17 previously arrested people, including Ahlam A.*, the main suspect.
On November 13, an attack on a busy shopping street in Istanbul killed six people and injured more than 80. Turkey blames the Syrian Kurdish militia YPG and the outlawed Kurdish Workers’ Party PKK. Both groups have denied this. According to the Turkish police, the main suspect Ahlam A. is a Syrian citizen. She claimed responsibility for the attack, police said.
Ten more victims in the hospital
The spokeswoman explained that those arrested in Bulgaria had provided “rather logistical and communicative assistance” after the attack. She gave no details, such as the nationality of those arrested or how they got to Bulgaria.
Health Minister Fahrettin Koca (57) tweeted on Saturday that 10 of the 81 injured in the attack are still being treated in hospitals, two of them in intensive care. (SDA)
* Name known