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27 July 2008

Cold-blooded bombers...

...kill 15 in Turkey.
-- ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) -- Two bombs exploded minutes apart in a packed Istanbul square Sunday night, killing 15 and injuring more than 150 in what the city governor said was a terror attack.

"We know it is a terrorist attack, but which organization is responsible — we don't yet have that information," Deputy Prime Minister Hayati Yazici told journalists at the scene of the attacks.
This attack was especially heinous... as it appears the first explosion was a smaller event, designed to lure onlookers and good samaritans into a second, larger "killing zone."
The first explosion was in a telephone booth," said Huseyin Senturk, who owns a shoe shop yards away from where the blasts occurred. "The second explosion was some 40 meters (yards) away."

"The first explosion was not very strong," Senturk added. "Several people came to see what was going on. That's when the second explosion occurred and it injured many onlookers."

The second explosion could be heard a mile away.
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RELATED: They've been hit like this before
The double bombing appeared to be the most serious terrorism attack here since twin truck bombings at two Istanbul synagogues killed 23 people and wounded more than 300 on Nov. 15, 2003.

An obscure group linked to Al Qaeda took responsibility for the synagogue blasts, which were the worst in a series of explosions blamed on Islamic extremist groups that year that killed more than 60 people.
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