(Scroll down for video) — An apparent suicide bomber detonated a blast near a mosque in a Turkish tourist town on Wednesday, officials said, causing casualties and further elevating security fears after a string of attacks around the country.
A statement by the governor’s office in Bursa said a woman bomber carried out the blast near the 500-year-old Grand Mosque in the city, which is renowned for Ottoman-era sites and artifacts in northwestern Turkey.
The state-run Anadolu Agency, which carried the governor’s office statement, reported that at least seven people were injured. An earlier report said at least one person had been killed.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility. But Turkey has hit by a series of attacks linked to the Islamic State or Kurdish rebels.
It would mark, however, the first major strike in Bursa, located about 60 miles south of Istanbul across the Sea of Marmara.
On March 31, a suicide bomber targeted security forces in the predominately Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, killing at least six people.
The blast came two days after the United States announced it would withdraw nearly all family members of U.S. troops and diplomats from its facilities in Turkey, citing security concerns linked to the U.S.-led battles against the Islamic State in neighboring Syria.
On March 13, a car bomb killed 37 people in the capital, Ankara, in an attack claimed by a breakaway Kurdish rebel faction. Less than a week later, a Turkish man with suspected ties to the Islamic State set off a suicide blast in Istanbul, killing four foreign tourists, including two Israeli Americans.
At least six major suicide bombings have rocked Turkey since last year as the country struggles on twin fronts.
Turkey seeks to tighten security along its border with Syria after years of failing to choke off routes used by the Islamic State for supplies and recruits. At the same time, Kurdish separatists have stepped up attacks in a decades-long campaign for greater autonomy in southeastern Turkey.
(c) 2016, The Washington Post · Brian Murphy
#BREAKING: CCTV of the moment a suicide bomber detonated herself in #Bursa #Turkey – @ArsalaiH pic.twitter.com/7iaxyGiC8v
— Amichai Stein (@AmichaiStein1) April 27, 2016
