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Travel Warning Follows Istanbul Bombing
1.4.2006
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U.S. Issues Travel Warning After Istanbul Bombing
Kills One Person, Injures 13 Others
ISTANBUL, Turkey - A bomb hidden in a garbage
can exploded near an Istanbul bus stop Friday,
killing a street vendor and injuring 13 people,
officials said.
A Kurdish militant group claimed responsibility,
calling the attack retaliation for the killings of
Kurds in southeastern Turkey (Kurdistan-Turkey).
A 3-year-old boy was shot and killed during renewed
clashes pitting angry Kurds against Turkish police
and paramilitary officers in the southeast,
officials said, increasing to seven the death toll
in the worst street violence in a decade in the
overwhelmingly Kurdish area.
The death followed reports that a 6-year-old and two
young men wounded during earlier clashes died
overnight in hospitals.
The military killed seven Kurdish rebels, including
two women, during fighting in a mountainous area in
the southeast, the Anatolia news agency reported.
Twenty-one Kurdish rebels have also been killed in
fighting in the southeast in recent days.
The United States issued a warning on Friday to
Americans about violence in Kurdish areas of eastern
Turkey, saying the unrest could spread to the
country's main cities in the West. The State
Department said clashes involved security forces
"and sympathizers of the PKK terrorist
organization."
In an e-mail to journalists, the Kurdistan Freedom
Falcons, a small militant group, said the bomb
attack was "a warning" and said it would "turn
Turkey into hell" if the violence did not end.
The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons is a hard-line group
believed to be linked to the main Kurdish guerrilla
group, the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK.
The shadowy group has claimed responsibility for a
number of bomb attacks in Turkey, including one in
the Aegean resort town of Cesme last summer that
wounded 21.
Video broadcast on CNN-Turk television of the
aftermath of the Istanbul explosion showed debris
scattered on a street, covering the sidewalk and
parked cars. Istanbul Gov. Muammer Guler said the
man killed in the blast was a street vendor of
sesame-coated pretzels.
Istanbul has a large Kurdish population and a number
of militant Kurdish groups.
Earlier Friday, bomb disposal teams destroyed a
remote-controlled bomb made of C-4 plastic
explosives in the Aegean port city of Izmir, NTV
television reported.
The bomb was hidden inside a flower pot left by the
side of a road frequently used by police, NTV said.
Kurdish rebels have carried out attacks using C-4
explosives in the past.
The European Union said Friday it was "very
concerned" by recent deadly clashes between Kurds
and security forces. EU spokeswoman Krisztina Nagy
said the European Commission was calling on Ankara
ensure that the Kurdish minority be given cultural
rights as a way to ease tensions.
"We deplore the loss of all human life, and we are
well aware that there is a serious terrorist problem
in the region, but it is a much wider issue than
just a security problem," she said.
The 25 EU governments opened membership talks with
Turkey in October, but insisted the country improve
its human rights record and treatment of minorities,
including the Kurds and religious minorities such as
Christians.
AP
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