A suicide bomber detonated a bomb in the heart of Istanbul’s historic district on Tuesday, killing 10 foreigners, the majority of them German tourists. 15 people were wounded in this latest in a series of attacks by Islamic extremists targetting Westerners.
The blast occurred just steps away from the historic Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque, the to target Turkey’s tourism sector.
The assailant has been described as a Syrian national born in 1988.Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus has said that the bomber was believed to have entered Turkey through Syria and was not among a list of potential bombers wanted by Turkey.
This impact strikes at Turkey’s $30 billion tourism industry, which has already suffered a steep decline in Russian visitors since Turkey shot down a Russian warplane near the Syrian border in November, 2015.
