News / Turkey

Investigation shows Istanbul airport blast caused by mortar shells

Thursday, 07 January 2016 9:19 PM [ Last Update: Thursday, 07 January 2016 9:28 PM ]

This file photo shows a fire truck on the runway of Sabiha Gökçen International Airport in Istanbul, Turkey. ©AFP

The findings of a recent investigation have revealed that a mortar attack was the cause of the deadly explosion at the Sabiha Gökçen International Airport in Turkey’s most populous city of Istanbul last month.

Istanbul's Anatolia Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office announced in a statement on Thursday that four mortar shells were fired from a forested area around two kilometers (1.25 miles) away from the airport at around 2:15 a.m. local time (0015 GMT) on December 23.

Three of the mortar shells fell close to the airport apron, while the last one fell somewhere else.

Shrapnel pieces from the mortar shells damaged several planes on the apron, and wounded two cleaning staff members identified as Canan Çelik Burgucu and Zehra Yamaç.

Yamaç, 30, later succumbed to her head injuries in hospital, while her 33-year-old colleague survived with a hand injury.

The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons, a Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)-affiliated militant group, later claimed responsibility for the mortar attack, saying it was in response to Ankara’s "fascist attacks that turn Kurdish cities into ruins."

A flag of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) hangs on a barricade as armed Kurdish militants man the barricade in the Sur district of Diyarbakir Province, Turkey, on November 18, 2015. ©AFP

Ankara has been engaged in a large-scale campaign against members of the outlawed PKK in its southern border region in the recent past. The Turkish military has also been conducting offensives against the group's positions in northern Iraq.

The operations began in the wake of a deadly July 20, 2015 bombing in the southern Turkish town of Suruc. More than 30 people died in the attack, which the Turkish government blamed on the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group.

After the bombing, the PKK militants, who accuse the government in Ankara of supporting Daesh, engaged in a series of attacks against Turkish police and security forces, in turn prompting the Turkish military operations.

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