This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

The United States warned its citizens about “credible threats” to tourist areas in Turkey, on the same day that Turkish police exploded a bag and the US announced new strikes on the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

In Istanbul, the US embassy sent an “emergency message” email to Americans that warned them about threats, “in particular to public squares and docks in Istanbul and Antalya”.

“Please exercise extreme caution if you are in the vicinity of such areas,” the embassy said in a statement.

Turkish police carried out a controlled explosion of a bag left in Istanbul’s popular Taksim Square on Saturday, a witness at the scene said. They also cordoned off Taksim, a square lined with hotels and restaurants frequented by tourists, while a member of the police bomb squad was seen opening what appeared to be a bag, the witness said.

The bomb squad later detonated it in a controlled explosion, causing a loud boom to echo across the square, the witness said.

A police officer at the scene later confirmed it was a bag, but no further information about the incident was immediately available.



Turkey has been hit by four suicide bombings already this year, the most recent one last month in Istanbul. Two of those have been blamed on Islamic State, while Kurdish militants have claimed responsibility for the other two.



Police appeared in force in central Istanbul, and officers sealed off roads near the Hilton hotel. Armed special police units were deployed outside foreign consulates in Istanbul, including the German and Italian missions.

Last month’s attack in Istanbul’s main shopping district killed three Israelis, two of whom held dual citizenship with the United States, and one Iranian. A separate attack in the city’s historic heart in January killed 12 German tourists.

Turkey has joined the US-led coalition to fight Isis in neighbouring Syria and Iraq, and is also fighting Kurdish militants in the south-east, where a ceasefire collapsed last July. Turkish airstrikes on the Kurds and Kurdish attacks on civilians have strained relations with the US, which also coordinates with Kurdish peshmerga in Iraq in the war against Isis.

The US and its allies targeted the militants with 21 strikes in Iraq on Friday and two in Syria, the Pentagon announced on Saturday.

US-led airstrikes against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq – interactive Read more

Four of the strikes in Iraq were near Hit, striking a large tactical unit and 30 Isis boats. In Syria, one strike destroyed seven Isis rockets and a mortar system near Manbij.

The US air force also deployed B-52 bombers to Qatar on Saturday, the first time they have been based in the Middle East since the end of the Gulf war in 1991. The bombers last flew operationally in the region in 2006, as part of the war in Afghanistan, and as part of a military exercise in Jordan in 2015.

Lieutenant Colonel Chris Karns, spokesman for the Central Command, said he could not provide the exact number of B-52 bombers to be based at Al Udeid Air Basein Qatar due to “operational security reasons”.

The powerful B-52 bombers, which are able to deliver precision weapons and provide close-air support, represent a newly ramped up effort to fight Isis.

“Accuracy is critically important in this war,” said Lieutenant General Charles Brown, commander of US Air Forces Central Command. “Carpet-bombing would not be effective for the operation we’re in because Daesh doesn’t mass as large groups. Often, they blend into population centers. We always look to minimize civilian casualties.”

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz has vowed to carpet-bomb enemies in the region, despite generals’ repeated disavowal of the tactic as impractical and illegal.

Syrian ceasefire: leaders in Europe to urge Putin to act against breaches Read more

Rebels in Syria took control of a town in southern Syria on late Friday, according to a rebel source and the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The rebels had by late on Friday taken control of Tasil in Deraa province near the Jordanian border and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, and drove out fighters, the source and the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

In a separate assault in the north of the country near the Turkish border on Thursday, rebel forces took over a town that had been the main stronghold of Isis in the northern Aleppo countryside.

A cessation of hostilities agreement in Syria that began on 27 February has slowed fighting in some areas in western Syria, but has not halted the violence. Isis and the al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front are not included in the truce.