Twenty suspects, including soldiers, arrested over deadly Kayseri bomb attack

KAYSERİ

Some 20 suspects were arrested on Jan. 13 over their alleged role in the December 2016 car bomb attack targeting a military bus carrying soldiers and claiming 14 lives in the Central Anatolian province of Kayseri. 

Launching operations after the attack carried out by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), police detained 26 people in the provinces of Istanbul, Kayseri, Şanlıurfa, Van, Adana and Diyarbakır. After interrogation, 22 of the suspects were sent to court and four were released under judicial control. 

The court arrested 20 of the suspects, including five soldiers. The arrested suspects also include the driver of the bus that was struck in the attack after he dropped off a soldier at a bus stop near the entrance of Erciyes University Hospital. 

Among the five soldiers arrested, four are suspected of providing information regarding the schedule of the on-leave soldiers taking the bus and their routes to reach downtown Kayseri to PKK militants, who orchestrated the attack.

The car used in the attack had tracked the bus for around five kilometers before hitting it, Hürriyet reported, adding that some of the survivors testified that a number of soldiers on the bus realized they were being followed by the car before the attack.