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Beirut: Syria's opposition coalition on Tuesday denounced the attack by a Syrian suicide bomber that killed 10 people in Istanbul's tourist heartland.
The Istanbul-based National Coalition "strongly condemns the terrorist explosion... and presents its condolences to the families of the victims," the group said in an online statement.
The bomber struck near the iconic Blue Mosque in Sultanahmet, a district home to Istanbul's biggest concentration of historic monuments.
According to Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus, the attacker was a Syrian national born in 1988.
Turkey has been a staunch supporter of Syria's uprising since it erupted in 2011, and hosts more than one million refugees from the neighbouring country.
The National Coalition "expressed its appreciation to the Turkish government and people for supporting the Syrian uprising" and said it would continue to strive against "terrorist plans".
Turkey has been struck by a number of deadly bombings recently, including in the capital on October 10 when two suicide bombers blew themselves up in a crowd of peace activists.
Turkish authorities have in recent weeks detained several suspected IS members, with officials saying they were planning attacks in Istanbul.
Most of those killed in Tuesday's attack were German, the Anatolia news agency quoted Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu's office as saying.
AFP
