Sott Exclusive: Another phony 'suicide' bombing in Turkey?

Sott.net
Sat, 19 Mar 2016 22:50 UTC

After last Sunday's bogus 'suicide car bomb' in Ankara that killed 37 people, another alleged 'suicide bomber' - this time allegedly on foot - 'blew himself up' on Istiklal Ave, one of Istanbul's busiest shopping areas on the European side of the city. Bizarrely, of the five people killed (including the alleged bomber), 3 were Israeli Jews - a man and wife and another as yet unidentified individual. The dead were apparently part of a group of Israeli tourists. The odds of a random bomb killing 3 Israeli Jews out of the thousands of other people on a busy Turkish shopping street is rather low, it has to be said.

The group of Israeli tourists, seen here seconds before the blast, who were apparently targeted by the explosion.

CCTV camera footage of the explosion claims to show the bomber, yet careful analysis of the evidence suggests that the bomb could easily have been placed in one of the many man-holes in the area.

First, watch the short video of the blast looking 'down' the street from the left side:

We've isolated the exact area of the bombing from google street view of the area.

Area shown in video of bombing

Immediately before the explosion, the man in the dark jacket who walks into the street is standing more or less directly in line with the door to the right of the "OXXO" store (see image below).

Now watch the moment of the blast:

Notice that the explosion occurs at the bottom right corner of the screen, behind both of the men suspected of being the 'bombers'.

Now watch this second video from the opposite angle looking back 'up' the street from the other side. This makes it clear that the bomb exploded from the ground up and behind the 2 men in question.The group of Israeli tourists can be seen walking on the right hand side, with the explosion occurring immediately to their left or directly in front of them.

As can be seen from the image below, at the possible location of the blast there is a manhole cover, possibly a maintenance access for the tram lines or sewer system. The man in the dark jacket stops directly in front of the doorway in which stairs are visible, directly in line with the white depression in the center of the image. That places the man who walks up behind him approximately half way between dark-jacket man and the manhole.

Circled in red, the likely location of the bomb

In another image of the aftermath, with security personnel on the scene, a blue guard has been placed around an area of the ground behind and to the right of the above manhole. This may well be the exact site of the explosion.

Circled in red, the possible exact location of the explosion, on the ground.

The image below identifies this same area, with another man hole (partially obscured by pedestrians) circled in red.

The best option for the location of the bomb

What seems clear at this point is that someone was watching and tracking the movements of the Israeli tourists in the area and detonated the bomb precisely as they walked past its location.

Dead and injured at the scene of the Istanbul blast

The explosion also occurred just a few yards from a Greek cultural center run by the Greek Consulate of Istanbul and directly outside a Turkish local authority building, the Beyoglu ilcesi Hukumet Konagi. The 2 security cameras over the door of this building, would undoubtedly provide clear evidence about the location and nature of the bomb. Of course, they may have 'malfunctioned' on that particular day.

'Malfunctioning' security cameras tell no tales.

Predictably, Turkish officials have already claimed evidence suggests the attacker may have been from ISIS or the PKK, and police are already focusing on 3 possible male suspects, two of them from Gaziantep near the Syrian border.