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Three People Killed, 21 Others Injured in Istanbul Suicide Bombing
A suicide bomber set off an explosive device in front of a police post near Istanbul's main square on Monday, killing two policemen and the bomber and injuring 21 people, Turkish television reported.
The motive of the bomber, a woman according to a report of the Anatolia News Agency, is still unknown.
The suicide bomber approached a police post where officers patrolling the Taksim Square were gathering, and detonated the bomb, Istanbul's Governor Erol Cakir was quoted as saying.
Cakir said that 17 of the injured were police officers.
Ambulances and firefighters rushed to the site and a police helicopter circled overhead. An olive green armored personnel carrier with mounted machine guns was parked in the area where the blast took place. Turkish police routinely use armored personnel carriers in major cities.
It is not the first time that a suicide bomber carried out an attack in Turkey. Leftist militants and Kurdish rebels who fought for autonomy in overwhelming Kurdish southeastern Turkey have carried out several such attacks in Istanbul and other cities in the past years.
Radical Islamic groups are also active in Istanbul.
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