More Than a Dozen Killed in Istanbul Explosions

It's turning out to be a really deadly weekend: Two bombs exploded about 10 minutes apart tonight in a busy shopping district in Istanbul. The mayor of Turkey's largest city said the bombs had been placed in trash bins. From Al-Jazeera:

"At least 15 people have been killed and more than 150 others injured in two explosions on a busy shopping street in Istanbul, according to the city governor.

...Muammer Guler, the governor of Istanbul, described the explosions as a 'terror attack'.

'The blasts occurred in a very busy district and this raised the casualties. Thirteen citizens lost their lives in this heinous attack,' he said.

...'The first explosion was not very strong,'' Huseyin Senturk, who owns a shoe shop in the area, said. 'Several people came to see what was going on. That's when the second explosion occured and it injured many onlookers.'"

Most Turks automatically suspect the PKK in such attacks, but coincidentally tomorrow is the day that the Constitutional Court begins weighing whether to ban the ruling AKP party, judging whether its Islamism threatens the secular state.

On July 9, three cops and three attackers were killed in a shootout outside the U.S. consulate in Istanbul (pictured). Reuters has a good timeline of recent attacks in Turkey.

Over at the Times of Lond, Foreign Editor Bronwen Maddox writes, "The latest terrorist blasts in Turkey are more serious than many in the past because the stakes are now higher." Read more.

(Photo by Burak Kara/Getty Images)