“We stand shoulder to shoulder with our ally,” the White House declared after the attack in the Turkish capital, in a message of solidarity with the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The United States reaffirmed its alliance with Turkey to combat terrorism after the bomb attack that caused at least 6 deaths and 81 wounded on Sunday, two of them in serious condition, in the central Istiklal street in Istanbul.

“The United States strongly condemns the act of violence that took place in Istanbul, Turkey. Our thoughts are with those who were injured and we send our deepest condolences to those who lost loved ones,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.

“We stand shoulder to shoulder with our NATO ally Turkey in the fight against terrorism,” added the spokeswoman, who is in Bali with US President Joe Biden, who will participate in the G20.

Turkey is one of Washington’s key allies in the Atlantic Alliance, especially for its help in the fight against terrorism in the Middle East.

The Turkish Minister of Justice, Bekir Bozdag, has said that the involvement of several terrorist organizations is being evaluated, but that at the moment none can be attributed.

In 2016 there were several terrorist attacks in Turkey, most of them from networks of the Islamic State jihadist group, in Istanbul, one of them in Istiklal street itself.

However, after the massacre caused by a jihadist on New Year’s Eve of that year in a nightclub on the banks of the Bosphorus, there were no more attacks in the city.

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