From Sebnem Arsu, the New York Times:  A suicide bomber wounded 32 people in an attack on the police in the busiest square in the heart of Istanbul on Sunday, government officials said.

The victims were 15 police officers and 17 civilians. Officials said none of the injuries appeared to be critical and the only person killed was the bomber. …

Sunday was the last day of a unilateral, two-month cease-fire by the rebel Kurdistan Workers’ Party, known as the P.K.K., which has been engaged in an armed struggle against the government since the early 1980s and has previously carried out suicide attacks. But other militant groups have also bombed Istanbul, and officials refused to speculate on the bomber’s affiliation. …

The Istanbul police chief, Huseyin Capkin, said that the bomber “tried to reach” a police van, part of a mobile police station often based at the square. “We can say that the target was the police,” he said. …

The last suicide bomb attack near Taksim Square, which killed two police officers and the assailant, was carried out by leftist militants in 2001.

In 2003, a local Islamist network loyal to Al Qaeda killed more than 60 people and wounded hundreds in attacks on two synagogues, the British Consulate and HSBC, a British bank.  (photo: Reuters)

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