14 wounded as separate explosions rock Turkey’s Istanbul

More than a dozen people have sustained injuries when two separate explosions struck commercial and residential districts in Istanbul, Turkey’s most populous city and main business hub.

The first blast occurred on Monday when a package delivered to an electronics and engineering company in the Maltepe district of the city went off as soon as the 56-year-old manager of the private firm, identified as Osman Kurdas, opened it, CNN Turk television news network reported.

The four victims of the blast were later transferred to hospital to receive medical treatment, with reports that Kurdas is in serious condition.

A large number of police officers were dispatched to the scene after the bombing, and they have launched a detailed investigation into the cause of the explosion. 

"When we heard the detonation, we came to the site. They had received a package that exploded as soon as they opened it. Four people got injured,” an eyewitness said on condition of anonymity.

No individual or group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet.

Turkey has seen attacks on a host of targets over the past year and a half. Most of the bombing attacks have been blamed on the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group, Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and other Kurdish groups. 

Later on Monday, a steam boiler explosion at a cosmetics manufacturing plant in Istanbul's working-class suburb of Sultanbeyli left ten people wounded. 

Video footage broadcast on local television channels showed firefighters trying to put out a fire, with heavy smoke coming out of a three-storey building.

Turkish soldier slain after attack in Antalya

Elsewhere in the southwestern and Mediterranean resort city of Antalya, a soldier sustained grave gunshot wounds when unidentified armed men opened fire on gendarmerie forces as the latter were conducting an operation in Cakirlar area of the Konyaalti district. The soldier later succumbed to his wounds in hospital.

Turkey ‘temporarily’ closes border crossing with Syria

Meanwhile, Turkish authorities have closed the Oncupinar border crossing with neighboring Syria in the country’s south-central province of Kilis.

Provincial governor Ismail Catakli said the crossing was closed to humanitarian aid and trade traffic on Monday “due to developments on the other side of the border.” He, however, did not provide any information as to when the border crossing would reopen.

“The border gate remains open only for ambulances,” an unnamed local official said, adding that the decision was taken following fierce clashes in the Syrian city of Azaz, located roughly 32 kilometers northwest of Aleppo. 

On August 24, Turkish air force and special ground forces kicked off Operation Euphrates Shield inside Syria in a bid to support the so-called Free Syrian Army militants and rid the border area of Daesh terrorists in addition to fighters from the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and Democratic Union Party (PYD).

The offensive was launched in coordination with the US-led military coalition, which has purportedly been fighting Daesh extremists since 2014.

The incursion was the first major Turkish military intervention in Syria, which drew strong condemnation from the Damascus government for violating the Arab country's sovereignty.

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