After last Sunday’s bogus ‘suicide car bomb’ in Ankara that killed 37 people, another alleged ‘suicide bomber’ – this time allegedly on foot – ‘blew himself up’ on Istiklal Ave, one of Istanbul’s busiest shopping areas. Bizarrely, of the five people killed, 2 or 3 were Israeli Jews – a man and wife and another as yet unidentified individual. And 2 were Americans. No word yet if the Americans and Israelis killed were dual citizens or not. Media are still saying only 5 people died, including the attacker. That leaves 4 victims. The odds of a random bomb killing 2 or 3 Israeli Jews and 2 Americans out of the thousands of other people on a busy Turkish shopping street is rather low, it has to be said.

CCTV camera footage of the explosion claims to show the bomber, yet careful analysis of the evidence suggests that the bomb could easily have been placed in one of the many man-holes in the area.

First, watch the short video of the blast looking ‘down’ the street from the left side:

We’ve isolated the exact area of the bombing from google street view of the area.

    

Immediately before the explosion, the man in the dark jacket who walks into the street is standing more or less directly in line with the door to the right of the “OXXO” store (see image below).

Now watch the moment of the blast:

Notice that the explosion occurs at the bottom right corner of the screen, behind both of the men suspected of being the ‘bombers’.

Now watch this second video from the opposite angle looking back ‘up’ the street from the other side. This makes it clear that the bomb exploded from the ground up and behind the 2 men in question.

As can be seen from the image below, at the location of the blast there is a manhole cover, possibly a maintenance access for the tram lines or sewer system. The man in the dark jacket stops directly in front of the doorway in which stairs are visible, directly in line with the white depression in the center of the image. That places the man who walks up behind him approximately half way between dark-jacket man and the manhole.

    

The explosion also occurred just a few yards from a Greek cultural center run by the Greek Consulate of Istanbul.