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Bomb blast injures 23, damages buildings
in Kurdistan-southeast Turkey
2.11.2005
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DIYARBAKIR,
Kurdistan (Turkey) , Nov 2 (AFP) - 12h28 - A car
bomb blamed on Kurdish rebels exploded overnight in
Turkey's southeast, injuring 23 people and damaging
dozens of buildings, officials said Wednesday.
The car, parked near a police station in Semdinli,
in the province of Hakkari, "was loaded with a large
amount of explosives by members of the PKK terrorist
organization," the Hakkari governor's office said.
The statement was a reference to the separatist
Kurdistan Workers' Party, deemed by Turkey, the
European Union and the United States to be a
terrorist organization.
Four soldiers and three policemen were among the
injured, the statement said, adding that the blast
left 67 homes and shops uninhabitable and shattered
the windows of other buildings nearby.
Hakkari Governor Erdogan Gurbuz said none of the
wounded were in a life-threatening condition.
"Most of the injured were treated as outpatients.
There is no one left in hospital at the moment," he
told the NTV news channel around noon.
Television footage showed a street littered with
debris and pieces of glass, patrolled by armed
soldiers.
Semdinli is located in Turkey's southeastern corner,
only several kilometers (miles) from the borders
with Iraq and Iran.
Unrest in the southeast increased this year after
the PKK called off a five-year unilateral truce in
June 2004 and its militants began sneaking back to
Turkey from the mountains of neighboring northern
Iraq, where they had retreated after declaring the
truce in 1999.
The Turkish army has warned that the rebels are
bringing along large amounts of explosives.
Kurdish militants have been blamed also for several
recent bomb attacks in Istanbul and in Turkey's
western tourist areas.
A minibus was blown up in the Aegean coast resort of
Kusadasi on July 16, killing five people, including
a British woman and an Irish teenager.
Five people were injured when a car bomb exploded at
a gas station in Istanbul last month.
The Kurdish conflict has claimed about 37,000 lives
since 1984, when the PKK took up arms for Kurdish
self-rule in the country's southeast.
AFP
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