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ANKARA, July 17 (AFP) - 15h15 - The outlawed
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) Sunday denied any
involvement in the deadly blast that killed five
people at a seaside resort in western Turkey.
In a statement carried by a pro-Kurdish news agency,
the PKK, considered a terrorist group by the
European Union and the United States, also said it
had no ties to the Kurdish group that claimed a bomb
attack in another resort last week and threatened to
continue targeting the tourism industry.
Although the PKK, which has attacked civilians in
the past, was never officially accused, Turkish
officials and the media strongly suspected it of
conducting Saturday's attack on a minibus in
Kusadasi that killed five people, including two
foreign tourists, and left 13 wounded.
"The allegations are completely untrue and baseless
... We have nothing to do with the act at Kusadasi,"
said a PKK statement carried on the Internet site of
the MHA news agency, which is close to the rebels.
"We have no links with organizations such as TAK
either," the statement said, using the Kurdish
acronym of the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons.
The TAK first emerged last August, weeks after the
PKK called off a five-year unilateral truce with
Ankara, when it claimed responsibility for the
bombing of two hotels in Istanbul, in which two
people were killed.
In April, it took the blame for another blast at
Kusadasi, in which one policeman died and four
others were wounded.
Last week, it claimed a bomb blast in a dustbin in
the Aegean resort of Cesme, just north of Kusadasi,
in which a score of people were wounded.
Turkish officials believe the TAK is associated with
the PKK and is a cover for attacks, particularly on
civilian targets, which the group does not want to
claim to avoid damaging its claim of defending
Turkey's Kurds against state oppression.
Clashes between the army and the PKK in Turkey's
mainly Kurdish southeast have markedly intensified
over the past three months, claiming about 100 lives
on both sides. Many of the soldiers died in mine
explosions blamed on the PKK.
The group bombed a train in southeastern Turkey
earlier this month, killing five people.
The Kurdish conflict in Turkey has caused about
37,000 deaths since the PKK took up arms for
self-rule in the southeast in 1984.
AFP
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