ANKARA
Turkish interior minister Efkan Ala has said that the suicide bomber who killed a police officer in the heart of the city’s touristic district has been identified, but refrained from naming the perpetrator.
"We've made very important progress [on the attack]. We’ve identified the bomber but we don't think it is right to make a detailed statement at this stage in terms of safety of the investigation," Ala told reporters in Ankara on Thursday.
Uncertainty has existed over the identity of the woman who detonated an explosive device in a police station in Istanbul on Tuesday.
The woman blew herself up in the central Sultanahmet district, injuring police officer Kenan Kumas who died later at an Istanbul hospital.
"We have been conducting very rigorous efforts in order to avert [any attacks] and find out the links," Ala added.
"If you are patient, you will see the results," the minister said.
Another policeman was also injured in the blast but is not in a critical condition, according to city governor Vasip Sahin.
The minister said today that there had been several arrests over a separate incident in Istanbul last week when a 36-year-old man was detained after throwing a grenade and firing at a police booth in front of Dolmabahce Palace, near the prime minister’s office in Besiktas.
Some media outlets had claimed that Tuesday’s suicide attacker was Elif Sultan Kalsen, a member of the far-left Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front, the DHKP-C.
However, Mehmet and Sirin Kalsen, parents of the purported bomber, said on Wednesday that a dead body shown to them at Turkey's Forensic Medicine Institute did not belong to their daughter.
