The suicide attack in the heart of Istanbul’s tourist district on Tuesday marked the latest escalation in the Islamic State’s fight against Turkey.
The blast, which killed 10 foreigners, was the third ISIS-linked suicide attack on Turkish soil in the last six months, but the first to take aim at tourists and the country’s cultural and economic capital.
Reverberations from the attacks were immediately apparent as tourist sites, normally swarming with visitors, emptied out.
Even before Tuesday’s attack, the country’s crucial tourism industry — which attracts some 30 million visitors a year — was already struggling amid increasing violence at home and conflicts throughout the region.
Since the summer, ISIS has killed more than 140 people in Turkey while renewed fighting between Turkish security forces and Kurdish rebels has transformed chunks of the southeast into war zones. Meanwhile, Russia has unleashed a barrage of restrictions on travel to Turkey as the two countries feud over Syria. Read more…
