Powerful car bomb in Turkey kills five and injures dozens with outlawed Kurdish Workers Party or PKK suspected
(Read article summary)The attack Thursday in Diyarbakir reinforces pressure on Turkish authorities to continue aerial bombing of PKK positions in northern Iraq. Fighting between the PKK and Turkish security forces threatens to destabilize Kurdish northern Iraq and make Iraqi political reconciliation more difficult.
BANGKOK, THAILAND
A powerful car bomb in southeast Turkey has killed five people and injured dozens of soldiers on a military bus that was the apparent target. Authorities have blamed armed Kurdish separatists who operate in Turkey and across the border in northern Iraq, where Turkish warplanes struck last week in the latest cross-border attack.
The blast occurred Thursday afternoon in Diyarbakir, a city in Turkey's Kurdish heartland that had suffered previous bombings. In the past, the outlawed Kurdish Workers Party, or PKK, which has been fighting since the 1980s for autonomous rule, has claimed responsibility for some attacks. Fighting between the PKK and Turkish security forces has spilled over into Iraq in recent months, threatening to destabilize the Kurdish north.
The New York Times reports that a bomb in a parked car was detonated by remote control as a busload of troops was passing. Bus driver Cahit Kara told state-controlled Anatolian News Agency that the 46-seat vehicle was headed to a nearby military housing estate.
"As we were moving on the Mimar Sinan Street close to the compound, a massive explosion happened," Mr. Kara said. "We were left in the middle of flames. I got injured in the explosion and was taken under treatment at the military hospital."
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