Four people were wounded overnight when a homemade device exploded in Istanbul, Turkey’s state-run news agency said Monday, as targeted attacks against ISIS militants continued.
Citing security sources, Anadolu Agency said the explosion was under an overpass on a highway in the Maltepe district on the Asian side of the city.
The agency said two passengers in a car and two pedestrians waiting for a taxi were wounded by flying pieces of metal and hospitalized. Passing vehicles were also damaged.
Turkey is facing an array of security threats including blowback from the war in neighboring Syria and renewed conflict with Kurdish militants in the southeast.
Kurdish and ISIS militants have been linked to major bombings in Istanbul, Turkey’s capital Ankara and other cities.
Meanwhile, Turkish and U.S.-led coalition forces struck ISIS targets north of the Syrian city of Aleppo, killing 27 militants, broadcaster CNN Turk and other media reported on Monday.
The reports did not say when the military action, which NTV said consisted of air strikes and shelling, occurred.
There have been a series of such strikes after the Turkish border town of Kilis, which lies just across the frontier from ISIS-controlled territory in Syria, was regularly struck by rockets in recent weeks.
International coalition warplanes began hitting ISIS targets inside Syria in September 2014. Turkey allows coalition jets to use its Incirlik air base, but doesn’t regularly participate in coalition air strikes.
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