Istanbul bomb attack on police bus kills 11

A car bomb attack targeting a police bus has killed seven officers and four civilians in central Istanbul.

The explosives were remotely detonated as the vehicle passed through the busy Vezneciler district at the morning rush hour, officials said.

No group has said it carried out the attack, but Kurdish militants have recently targeted security services.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Turkey will "fight the terrorists to the end".

The explosion happened near the city's historic Beyazit Square neighbourhood, a major tourist attraction, and an Istanbul university building.

About 36 other people were injured, Istanbul's governor, Vasip Sahin, said.

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Image copyrightREUTERS

Image captionThe blast happened at the morning rush hour in central Istanbul

Image copyrightSNS

Image captionThe explosion also damaged nearby buildings

Visiting some of the wounded in hospital, Mr Erdogan said: "These (attacks) are being carried out against people whose duty it is to ensure the security of our people.

"These cannot be pardoned or forgiven. We shall continue our fight against terrorists tirelessly until the end."

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Wife of Bangladeshi anti-terrorism policeman stabbed, shot dead

Three assailants riding a motorcycle stabbed and then shot Mahmuda Aktar, 33, while she was on her way to put her son onto a school bus near her home in the southeastern port city of Chittagong, police said.

BRIEFCASE

• 1

  Wife of a cop known for battling Islamist extremism shot dead.
• 2

  Assailants riding bike stabbed and then shot Mahmuda Aktar.
• 3

  Government launches security crackdown on militant groups.

The wife of a senior Bangladeshi police official known for battling Islamist militants was stabbed and shot to death today, and machete-wielding assailants killed a Christian grocer in a separate incident.

Both attacks appeared to be the work of Islamist militants who have killed at least 30 people, including religious minorities, liberal bloggers and academics, since February last year, police said.

DETAILS OF THE CASE:

Three assailants riding a motorcycle stabbed and then shot Mahmuda Aktar, 33, while she was on her way to put her son onto a school bus near her home in the southeastern port city of Chittagong, police said.

"She was stabbed first. Then they shot her in the head three times," Humayan Kabir, deputy police commissioner of Chittagong, told Reuters.

Her husband, police superintendent Babul Aktar, has played an important role in cracking down on militants in the region.

"Babul Aktar is an efficient police officer and played a key role in apprehending Islamists. They might have killed his wife because they failed to get him," Interior Minister Asaduzzaman Khan told reporters.

Aktar, who was recently posted to police headquarters in the capital, Dhaka, busted several hideouts of the banned group Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen. His team also arrested one of the group's leaders, who was later killed in a grenade blast during a police raid in October.

GOVERNMENT LAUNCHES CRACKDOWN ON MILITANT GROUPS

The government has launched a crackdown on militant groups who want to impose strict Islamic law on Bangladesh, whose population of 160 million are mostly moderate Muslims.

In Sunday's other killing, Sunil Gomes, a 60-year-old shopkeeper, was hacked to death in his shop in the northern district of Natore, local police official Manirul Islam said.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for killing Gomes, according to the U.S.-based monitoring service SITE.

Islamic State and al Qaeda have claimed responsibility for many killings in the past but the government denies either group has a presence in Bangladesh and says home-grown radicals are responsible.

State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam told Reuters in an interview last month that Islamic State was trying to ride a wave of religious radicalisation by falsely claiming killings, and said there was enough evidence implicating domestic militant groups.

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