29 Dead, 10 Detained in Turkey Attacks Aimed at Police: Updates | News | teleSUR English

Turkey's Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu has confirmed that 10 people have been detained in relation to the two bombings that left 29 dead and 166 wounded on Tuesday.

The two blasts happened shortly after a soccer match between the country's top teams ended in Istanbul and were directed at police.

Soylu said the people had been detained based on evidence from the first blast – a vehicle that had detonated at a riot-police rallying point just outside the Vodafone Arena, home to Istanbul's Besiktas soccer team. However, there is no clear indication as to whom was behind the attacks, he added, and no one has claimed responsibility yet.

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Nevertheless, the attacks come only a week after the Islamic State group called for attacks on the country's "security, military, economic and media establishment," leading many to suspect the extremist group.

Soylu said one of the explosions hit directly outside the stadium, while the suspected suicide bomber struck in the adjacent Macka park less than a minute later.

President Tayyip Erdogan described the blasts as a terrorist attack on police and civilians. He said the aim had been to cause the maximum number of casualties.

"As a result of these attacks unfortunately we have martyrs and wounded," Erdogan said in a statement.

"Nobody should doubt that with God's will, we as a country and a nation will overcome terror, terrorist organizations ... and the forces behind them."

Describing the blasts to Reuters, Omer Yilmaz, who works as a cleaner at the nearby Dolmabahce mosque, directly across the road from the stadium, said: "It was like hell. The flames went all the way up to the sky."

"People ducked under the tables, women began crying," he continued. "Football fans drinking tea at the cafe sought shelter, it was horrible."

Islamic State group, Kurdish and far-leftist militants have all carried out bomb attacks in recent years including in Istanbul and the capital Ankara.

Turkey, a NATO member, is part of the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State group in Syria, and is battling an insurgency by Kurdish militants in its southeast.

Casualties Mainly Police

The first blast came about two hours after the end of the match between Besiktas and Bursaspor, at an assembly point for riot police, according to minister Soylu. The second one came as remaining police surrounded the suicide bomber.

As a result, reported a Reuters photographer, many riot police officers were seriously wounded and two civilians lost their lives.

Armed police sealed off streets and a police water cannon doused the wreckage of a burned-out car as two separate fires burned on the road outside the stadium, he reported.

According to Soylu, 27 police officers were killed in the explosions, which have been described as "horrific acts of terror" by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. Another 17 were wounded and undergoing surgery, and six more were in intensive care, Soylu added.

Both soccer teams have condemned the attacks, with Bursaspor representatives saying none of their fans appeared to have been harmed.

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"Those attacking our nation's unity and solidarity will never win," Sports Minister Akif Cagatay Kilic said on Twitter. Transport Minister Ahmet Arslan, also writing on Twitter, described it as a terrorist attack.

Turkey has been hit by a series of bombings in recent years, some blamed on Islamic State group militants, others claimed by Kurdish and far-leftist militant groups.

In June, around 45 people were killed and hundreds wounded when three suspected Islamic State group militants carried out a gun and bomb attack on Istanbul's Ataturk airport.

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